Abstract

Four-wave mixing can be used to generate coherent output beams, with frequencies difficult to acquire in commercial lasers. Here, a single narrow external cavity diode laser locked to the two photon $5s–5d$ transition in rubidium is combined with a tapered amplifier system to produce a high power cw beam at 778 nm and used to generate coherent light at 420 nm through parametric four-wave mixing. This process is analyzed in terms of the intensity and frequency of the incoming beam as well as the atomic density of the sample. The efficiency of the process is currently limited when on resonance due to the absorption of the 420 nm beam, and modifications should allow a significant increase in output power.

© 2013 Optical Society of America

Frequency characteristics of far-detuned parametric four-wave mixing in Rb

E. Brekke and E. Herman
Opt. Lett. 40(23) 5674-5677 (2015)

Optical cavity for enhanced parametric four-wave mixing in rubidium

E. Brekke and S. Potier
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Opt. Lett. 13(12) 1093-1095 (1988)

Saturation and alternate pathways in four-wave mixing in rubidium

E. Brekke and Noah Swan
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 36(2) 421-425 (2019)

Generation of coherent mid-IR light by parametric four-wave mixing in alkali vapor

Yoel Sebbag, Yefim Barash, and Uriel Levy
Opt. Lett. 44(4) 971-974 (2019)