Professor Daniel J. Gauthier Department of Physics, Duke University
4 PM, Thursday, September 26, 1996
Room 101, Olin Physical Laboratory
Two-photon lasers have intrigued researchers for years because the dynamical behavior of this new class of highly nonlinear quantum oscillator is very different from normal one-photon lasers. Unfortunately, tests of the numerous, often conflicting, predictions about their behavior have been hindered by the difficulty in realizing practical two-photon amplifiers. To this end, we have recently observed ~30% two-photon optical amplification of a continuous-wave probe laser field propagating through a potassium vapor driven by a strong pump laser tuned near the D1 transtion frequency. I will review the physics of two-photon lasers and describe our efforts toward the development of two-photon lasers based on our new amplifier.