This article is cited in 12 papers

REVIEWS OF TOPICAL PROBLEMS

Resonance phenomena in saturation of absorption by laser radiation

V. S. Letokhov^a, V. P. Chebotaev<sup>b

a</sup> Institute of Spectroscopy of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Troitsk, Moscow region
^b Institute of Semiconductor Physics of USSR Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch, Novosibirsk

Abstract: The review deals with resonance phenomena resulting from saturation of low-pressure-gas absorption lines by a coherent optical field, when the spectral lines are inhomogeneously broadened by the Doppler effect. Principal attention is paid to narrow resonances of width much smaller than the Doppler widths, which are produced upon saturation of the absorption by light waves under various experimental conditions (inside and outside the laser resonator, in traveling and standing waves, in spatially separated waves, etc.), owing to different effects (absorption saturation, mode interaction in the laser). Each of the phenomena is considered from both the theoretical and the experimental points of view. The phenomena considered serve as a basis of a new branch of optical spectroscopy, namely nonlinear laser spectroscopy of ultrahigh resolution.

UDC: 535.34

PACS: 42.50.Gy, 42.60.Da, 42.62.Fi

DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0113.197407a.0385

 English version: Physics–Uspekhi, 1975, 17:4, 467–491