Laser-induced collisional avalanche in atomic cesium

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Abstract
Radiation tuned to an excited-state transition in dense cesium vapor results in the appearance of induced absorption and fluorescence after delays of up to 5 s, an observation ascribed to a chain reaction of resonant binary collisions initiated by the incident light. Our results occur in a nonlinear regime characterized by high collision rates, which are variable in a controlled fashion at constant vapor density.