Polarization Switching with Sodium Vapor in a Fabry Perot

Abstract

It was first predicted by Kitano et al. [1] that an optical cavity which contained three-state atoms (in the so-called lambda configuration) would show switching and hysteresis in the polarization state of the output as one varied the input power. Their model was subsequently generalized to include saturation effects [2] and a model was developed using a more realistic atomic model, the J = 1/2 to J = 1/2 transition [3]. Furthermore, it has been predicted that when the atomic susceptibility is primarily dispersive a self-pulsing of the polarization state, with period doubling bifurcations leading to chaotic behavior, can occur [2,3b]. A different type of self-pulsing has been predicted in the case of an applied magnetic field with a direction perpendicular to that of the radiation field wave vector [4].