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Air Lasing pp 45–74Cite as

The Role of Electron Collisions in Lasing in Neutral and Singly Ionized Molecular Nitrogen

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Part of the book series: Springer Series in Optical Sciences ((SSOS,volume 208))

Abstract

In this chapter, we will discuss lasing actions in the air that follow the excitation with a short intense laser pulse at 800 nm. We will successively analyze two types of laser actions. The first type is based on the optical transition between the excited triplet states of the neutral nitrogen molecule. Based on the study of the dependence of the lasing signal on the polarization ellipticity of the pump pulse, we unambiguously attribute gain mechanism in this scheme to the electron collisions with neutral nitrogen molecules that result in population inversion. Experimental results on the dynamics of emissions in the forward and backward directions with respect to the direction of the pump pulse are confirmed by numerical simulations based on the Maxwell-Bloch equations. The second type of lasing stems from the transition between the second electronically excited state and the ground state of a singly ionized nitrogen molecule. After reviewing current interpretations of this emission process, which remains to be a controversial issue, we will focus on our interpretation that links stimulated emission in this scheme to superradiance. We will argue that electron recollisions play an essential role in establishing the superradiant gain.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge fruitful collaborations with Eduardo Oliva of Madrid Technical University (Spain), Shihua Chen of Southeast University (China), Nevel Ibrakoivc, Samuel Bengtsso, Cord Arnold, Hohan Mauritsson, and Anne L’Huiller of Lund University (Sweden), Arnaud Couairon of Ecole Polytechnique (France), Rostyslav Danylo of Ecole Polytechnique (France), Sergey Mitryukovskiy of Russian Quantum Center (Russia), and Vladimir Tikhonchuk of Bordeaux University (France). Y. Liu would like to thank Hongbing Jiang and Chengyin Wu of Peking University (China), Ya Cheng and Jinping Yao of SIOM (China), and Huailiang Xu of Jilin University (China) for the stimulating and fruitful discussions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorie d’Optique Appliquée, ENSTA ParisTech, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, 828 Boulevard des Maréchaux, 91762, Palaiseau, France

    Yi Liu, Pengji Ding, Aurélien Houard & André Mysyrowicz

  2. Shanghai Key Lab for Modern Optical System, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, 200093, Shanghai, China

    Yi Liu

  3. School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, China

    Pengji Ding

Authors
  1. Yi Liu
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  2. Pengji Ding
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  3. Aurélien Houard
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  4. André Mysyrowicz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yi Liu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

    Pavel Polynkin

  2. Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China

    Ya Cheng

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Liu, Y., Ding, P., Houard, A., Mysyrowicz, A. (2018). The Role of Electron Collisions in Lasing in Neutral and Singly Ionized Molecular Nitrogen. In: Polynkin, P., Cheng, Y. (eds) Air Lasing. Springer Series in Optical Sciences, vol 208. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65220-7_3

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