Abstract
We investigated the sideband instability by numerical integration of the Maxwell-Bloch equations for propagation of a nearly resonant pump laser and a weak probe laser in a system of two-level atoms. In an optically thick medium, the probe gain (absorption) spectrum becomes a function of propagation distance. We find that the well-known gain resonance at the generalized Rabi frequency Ω' is suppressed and a broad asymmetric gain region forms on each side of the laser frequency. For probe-pump detunings inside these gain regions, the field envelope breaks up into periodic traveling waves that are compared to the polycnoidal solutions of the sine-Gordon equation with periodic boundary conditions.
© 1991 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
M. E. CRENSHAW, CHARLES M. BOWDEN, and C. D. CANTRELL
QWD9 International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC) 1990
Israel Bar-Joseph and Yaron Silberberg
MF3 OSA Annual Meeting (FIO) 1986
Qilin Wu, Daniel J. Gauthier, and T. W. Mossberg
ThF6 OSA Annual Meeting (FIO) 1991