Origin and properties of polychromatic directional emission from sodium atoms

Abstract

The parametric and nonparametric nonlinear processes responsible for generation of directional infrared radiation in sodium vapors, excited to the 4D5/2 energy level by resonant laser radiation, are identified by the transfer of orbital angular momentum from the pump radiation to the generated fields. We show that the optical fields generated by amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) simultaneously participate in several loops of four-wave mixing (FWM) generating new directional emission. The measured spectral linewidth of the FWM emission at 819.7 nm sets an upper limit to the linewidth of two fields resulting from ASE at 2338.6 and 9093.0 nm, assuming their spectra are uncorrelated. Understanding details of the new-field generation is central to applications such as directional laser guide stars, stand-off magnetometry, and entangled field generation.