Saturation of the photoneutralization of a H- beam in continuous operation.

An unprecedented, greater than 50%, photodetachment rate is obtained on a H- beam in the continuous regime. The key element of the experimental setup is a medium-finesse optical cavity, suspended around the anion beam, which makes it possible to recycle the photon flux in the interaction region, at the crossing between the anion and laser beams. The cavity is injected by a narrow-linewidth ytterbium-doped fibre laser, at the wavelength 1064 nm. The light power stored in the cavity is about 14 kW for 24 W of input light power. Similar greater-than-50% photo-neutralization efficiencies can be contemplated for beams with kinetic energies much larger than 1.2 keV of the presently used H- beam, given the fact that the stored light power can be increased, for larger beam diameters, by several orders of magnitude. The technique can thus be relied on to design novel D0 injectors, for fusion reactors, with a much better efficiency than the molecular-collision based injectors presently developed for ITER. It can also be applied to the production of neutral beams of any species that can be conveniently prepared in the form of an anion beam, provided that efficient light power storage can be achieved for the corresponding photodetachment wavelength.

Spectrotemporal dynamics of a picosecond OPO based on chirped quasi-phase-matching.

We report on the first experimental investigation of the spectral dynamics of a synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator (OPO) by use of dispersive Fourier transformation. For standard pumping rates, we observe a reproducible steady-state pulse-to-pulse spectrum. However, at high pumping levels, the OPO delivers pulse trains with nontrivial oscillatory spectral patterns. So as to benefit from a tailored broadband gain spectrum, the investigated OPO contains a chirped quasi-phase matching (QPM) nonlinear crystal. We explore the specific impacts of using such a remarkable parametric amplification medium where nonlinearly coupled frequencies vary with position. Depending on the QPM chirp rate sign, a red- or blue-shift of the emitted wavelength occurs when the OPO is switched on, leading to different spectral steady-states. These singular spectrotemporal dynamics are evidenced and explained for the first time.

Sub-kHz-level relative stabilization of an intracavity doubled continuous wave optical parametric oscillator using Pound-Drever-Hall scheme.

We report the relative frequency stabilization of an intracavity frequency doubled singly resonant optical parametric oscillator on a Fabry-Perot étalon. The red/orange radiation produced by the frequency doubling of the intracavity resonant idler is stabilized using the Pound-Drever-Hall locking technique. The relative frequency noise of this orange light, when integrated from 1 Hz to 50 kHz, corresponds to a standard deviation of 700 Hz. The frequency noise of the pump laser is shown experimentally to be transferred to the non resonant signal beam.

Deeply bound cold caesium molecules formed after 0(-)(g) resonant coupling.

Translationally cold caesium molecules are created by photoassociation below the 6s + 6p(1/2) excited state and selectively detected by resonance enhanced two photon ionization (RE2PI). A series of excited vibrational levels belonging to the 0(-)(g) symmetry is identified. The regular progression of the vibrational spacings and of the rotational constants of the 0(-)(g) (6s + 6p(1/2)) levels is strongly altered in two energy domains. These deviations are interpreted in terms of resonant coupling with deeply bound energy levels of two upper 0(-)(g) states dissociating into the 6s + 6p(3/2) and 6s + 5d(3/2) asymptotes. A theoretical model is proposed to explain the coupling and a quantum defect analysis of the perturbed level position is performed. Moreover, the resonant coupling changes dramatically the spontaneous decay products of the photoexcited molecules, strongly enhancing the decay into deeply bound levels of the a(3)Σ(+)(u) triplet state and of the X(1)Σ(+)(g) ground state. These results may be relevant when conceiving population transferring schemes in cold molecule systems.

Stimulated Raman scattering in an optical parametric oscillator based on periodically poled MgO-doped stoichiometric LiTaO3.

The evolution of the spectrum of a singly resonant optical parametric oscillator based on an MgO-doped periodically poled stoichiometric lithium tantalate crystal is observed when the pump power is varied. The onset of cascade Raman lasing due to stimulated Raman scattering in the nonlinear crystal is analyzed. Spurious frequency doubling and sum-frequency generation phenomena are observed and understood. A strong reduction of the intracavity Raman scattering is obtained by a careful adjustment of the cavity losses.

Widely tunable single-frequency pulsed optical parametric oscillator.

The spectral output of a nanosecond dual-cavity doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator has been investigated versus the relative length of the signal and idler cavities. Regions of stable single-frequency operation are determined by use of a type II phase-matched KTP crystal and compared with the predictions of a mode-overlap model. A wide mode-hop-free tuning range is obtained over 40 GHz, limited only by piezoelectric biases. Furthermore, discrete tuning is investigated over the full parametric gain curve. For demonstration purposes, experiments are performed in the domain that is most inclined to multifrequency emission, i.e., near degeneracy.

Entangled-cavity optical parametric oscillator for mid-infrared pulsed single-longitudinal-mode operation.

We report a pulsed doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator that uses an original entangled-cavity geometry. This compact source (total volume of 1 L, including the pump laser) displays single-frequency operation (linewidth, <100 MHz), a high repetition rate (>10 kHz), low threshold (<10 muJ), and wide tuning in the mid-infrared. These properties qualify pulsed doubly resonant optical parametric oscillators as powerful tools for applications in such fields as nonlinear spectroscopy, lidar, and pollutant detection.

Resonant coupling in the formation of ultracold ground state molecules via photoassociation.

We demonstrate the existence of a new mechanism for the formation of ultracold molecules via photoassociation of cold cesium atoms. The experimental results, interpreted with numerical calculations, suggest that a resonant coupling between vibrational levels of the 0+u (6s+6p1/2) and (6s+6p3/2) states enables formation of ultracold molecules in vibrational levels of the ground state well below the 6s+6s dissociation limit. Such a scheme should be observable with many other electronic states and atomic species.

Photoassociative spectroscopy as a self-sufficient tool for the determination of the Cs triplet scattering length

In photoassociation spectroscopy, the line intensities of a given vibrational progression exhibit zero-signal modulation reflecting the node structure of the s-wave ground state wave function of two free colliding atoms. This leads to the determination of the scattering length. We performed photoassociation of cold Cs atoms polarized in the Zeeman sublevel f = 4, m(f) = 4. We analyzed the intensities of the lines associated with the Cs2 0(-)(g) state dissociating to the 6s(1/2)+6p(3/2) asymptote. This yields a value of the Cs triplet state scattering length, a(T) = -530a(0), while consistency requirements impose a value of the multipole ground state molecular coefficient, C6 = 6510 a.u.

Photoassociative Spectroscopy and Formation of Cold Molecules in Cold Cesium Vapor: Trap-Loss Spectrum versus Ion Spectrum.

We report on the experimental spectra of all the optically accessible long-range attractive molecular states of the Cs2 dimer below the 6s2S1/2 + 6p2P3/2 dissociation limit by molecular photoassociation of cold Cs atoms. The spectra are obtained by the usual trap-loss method as well as by pulsed-laser photoionization of Cs2 molecules into Cs+2 ions. The two spectra present markedly different features. While the 1g, 0(+)u, and 0(-)g vibrational progressions are present in the trap-loss spectrum, the Cs+2 ion spectrum presents only the 0(-)g and 1u vibrational progressions. Those states (0(-)g and 1u) lead to the formation of the translationally cold Cs2 ground state molecules at temperatures in the 100 µK range, to our knowledge the lowest molecular temperature reported up until now. The C3 asymptotic coefficients for the 0(+)u and 1g states are determined through a fit of the experimental energy levels. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.