Observation of Raman self-focusing in an alkali-metal vapor cell

ORAL

Abstract

We report an experimental demonstration of Raman self-focusing and self-defocusing in a far-off resonant alkali-metal atomic system. The key idea is to drive a hyperfine transition in an alkali-metal atom to a maximally coherent state with two laser beams. In this regime, the two-photon detuning from the Raman resonance controls the nonlinear index of the medium.

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Authors

  • Brett Unks

    • University of Wisconsin
    • University of Wisconsin - Madison
    • University of Wisconsin at Madison

  • Nicholas Proite

    • University of Wisconsin - Madison

  • Jonathan Green

    • University of Wisconsin - Madison

  • Deniz Yavuz

    • University of Wisconsin - Madison