Erlangen 2022 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 24: Quantum Effects

Q 24.1: Poster

Tuesday, March 15, 2022, 16:30–18:30, P

Towards Lasing Without Inversion in Mercury Vapor at 253.7 nm — •Daniel Preißler and Thomas Walther — TU Darmstadt, Institute for Applied Physics, Laser and Quantum Optics, Schlossgartenstr. 7, D-64289 Darmstadt

UV and VUV laser sources have a broad application range in industry and commercial use as well as in research. The development of conventional direct laser sources in the regime of small wavelengths has reached a limit, since the pump energy to obtain population inversion scales at least with the fourth power of the desired laser frequency. But if the coherent (re-)absorption of photons at the laser frequency could be suppressed, a small population of the upper laser level would be sufficient to create amplification and/or lasing. This idea is called Lasing Without Inversion (LWI) and can be achieved by use of atomic coherence effects similar to EIT and CPT.

An experimental setup of an amplification without inversion (AWI) scheme is realized in atomic mercury vapor [1]. Because of its four-level system, allowing for a Doppler free three-photon-coherence, UV LWI at 253.7 nm can be generated by two laser systems at 435.8 nm and 546.1 nm as driving fields. Through extensive simulations [2] critical parameters of the laser systems involved, in particular their powers and linewidths, were identified. In this contribution the results of those simulations as well as the overall state of the experiment will be presented.

[1] Rein et al. (2021) arXiv:2111.03023

[2] Sturm et al. (2014) doi.org/10.1364/josab.31.001964