Radiative emission of driven two-level atoms into the modes of an enclosing optical cavity: The transition from fluorescence to lasing

Abstract

The radiative emission of strongly driven, two-level-like barium atoms into the modes of a confocal optical cavity is studied as a function of barium density. As the barium density is increased, the spatial profile, intensity, and spectrum of light emitted out the ends of the confocal cavity display dramatic changes indicative of a transition from fluorescence to lasing. In this novel two-level system, laser action can be explained in terms of an inversion between the dressed atom-field states or in terms of a type of stimulated hyper-Raman scattering in which atoms lase from the ground to the excited atomic state. A simple dressed-atom rate-equation analysis of this two-level-atom laser is presented. It is pointed out that this same system may provide a means of realizing two-photon-like laser action.