Abstract
Recent experiments1 on transverse instabilities in Gaussian laser beams using sodium vapor for the nonlinear medium have shown well-behaved oscillations of the type first proposed by Ikeda.2 The period of such oscillations for a medium with infinitely fast response is given by 2τr, where τR is the time it takes for light to traverse the feedback loop. Our experimental arrangement (Fig. 1) uses a ring dye laser with well-defined transverse properties tuned to a frequency 2 to 10 GHz below the sodium D2 resonance. Operation on the self-defocusing side guarantees that no self-trapped filaments are formed. A feedback mirror several meters from the sodium sample provides the delay needed for the Ikeda instability.
© 1985 Optical Society of America
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