Polarization effects during the interaction of counterpropagating waves in isotropic resonant media

Abstract

Using the method of nonlinear polarization spectroscopy in the oppositely propagating laser beams of different power at a wavelength of 3.39 µm, we study, both theoretically and experimentally, the mechanisms of the formation of dichroism and birefringence during the interaction of arbitrarily polarized fields of resonant radiation with gaseous methane under conditions of low pressure of the gas in the cell and saturation of the operating transition F 2 (2) by the field of a strong wave. Spectral forms of the polarization resonances of the test-wave intensity at the output of the polarization spectrometer are studied experimentally. Based on the vector theory of light interaction with matter, we present an exhaustive theoretical interpretation of the experimental data on the dependence of the polarization state of a weak wave on the intensity of a linearly or circularly polarized high-power counterpropagating wave. A new technique of measuring the induced nonlinear anisotropy for test-field waves and the macroscopic parameters of the resonant gas is developed.