Abstract
By use of circularly polarized light we have exploited optical pumping within the Zeeman sublevels of the ground state to obtain optical bistability in sodium vapours with low threshold power (around 1 mW) and a wide tuning range (>12 GHz). Experimental results are presented for different conditions of operation and compared to computer calculations, that include propagation effects and inhomogeneous broadening, based on a three-level atomic model that accounts for optical pumping.
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As customary we refer to absorptive and dispersive OB according to its origin in the absorptive or dispersive part of the atomic polarizability
For the sake of clarity, we consistently call throughout this paper detuning the frequency offset between the field and the atomic resonance and mistuning the offset between the field and activity frequencies
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CEILAP, Buenos Aires, Argentina