Saturation of the weak probe amplification in a strongly driven cold and dense atomic cloud

L. Khaykovich, N. Friedman, and N. Davidson

We present an experimental and theoretical investigation of weak probe amplification in a cold and optically thick atomic cloud that is highly driven by a strong pump laser. We find that for high optical densities the probe amplification is strongly saturated. We compare our saturation measurements with a model based on dressed-atom population equalization due to re-scattering of spontaneous emission. Good agreement between theory and experiment is obtained only when corrections due to multiple scattering are included.

"Saturation of the weak probe amplification in a strongly driven cold and dense atomic cloud", L. Khaykovich, N. Friedman, and N. Davidson, Eur. Phys. J. D 7, 467 (1999). (PDF)

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