Abstract

The linear stability analysis (LSA) of counterpropagating pump beams which propagate through a pure sodium vapor without depletion predicts the onset of self-oscillations, the period of which is strongly dependent on the detuning: The Raman self-oscillation, intuitively expected when the optical nutation is not prevented by collisions, is predicted, at threshold, only for small detunings. For a large detuning, of magnitude of order 2.6 GHz, as in the experiment reported by G. Khitrova et. al.,^[1] the threshold self-oscillation is predicted to display a frequency in between the generalized Rabi frequency and the experimental frequency, equal to 10.6 MHz, i. e. $\frac{\Gamma }{2\pi }$ where Γ is the radiative lifetime.

© 1992 IQEC