Proposal for Beating Two Optical Masers

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
An experimental arrangement is proposed with which two optical masers may be made to beat to produce a far-infrared source. The beating process occurs in a semiconductor which lacks inversion symmetry, allowing the third-order process. By selecting a semiconductor with an appropriate energy gap, the energy denominators in the matrix element may be made small, enhancing the infrared intensity. Using the exciton states as the virtual intermediate states, the power output is calculated in the effective-mass approximation. For beating a ruby maser at T=−180°C (6934 Å) with one at T=20°C (6943 Å), a CdSe sample at 4.2°K is proposed because its exciton energies are just higher than the maser energies. For input power of 10 kW for each energy, a 19-cm−1 infrared beam of over a watt is expected. The competing process of two-photon absorption heats the sample to approximately 65°K during a pulse, but this effect is not disastrous.

This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit: