Single-pumped gain profile for a superluminal ring laser

Abstract

We present an approach for realizing a superluminal ring laser using a single isotope of atomic Rb vapor by producing electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in self-pumped Raman gain. Only a single pump laser is used for generating a Raman gain profile containing a dip at its center. The position and depth of this dip can be tuned by adjusting the intensity of the pump laser, allowing for optimizing the degree of enhancement in sensitivity within a certain operating range. This approach represents a significant simplification of the design of superluminal lasers compared to the approaches demonstrated in previous studies. We demonstrate experimentally the realization of this scheme using transitions within the D1 and the D2 manifolds of 85Rb. Numerical simulations based on an approximate model show close agreement with the experimental results.