Abstract

Subfemtosecond pulses can be generated in a Raman generator by using electromagnetically induced transparency if ultrabroad Raman sidebands are generated and then propagate in such a way that the generated sidebands at higher frequencies are temporally advanced with regard to those at lower frequencies. However, it was recently demonstrated by experiments [1] that above-resonance Raman excitations ensured the establishment of anti-phased Raman coherence for pulse compression but only very limited number of Raman sidebands could be generated due to Raman self-defocusing [2], while broadband sidebands could be generated under below-resonance Raman excitations, which supported no pulse compression in the same Raman media. In order to establish anti-phased Raman coherence and simultaneously overcome Raman self-defocusing to benefit efficient generation of broadband sidebands, we suggest in this report a new technique to generate sub-fs pulse train in a Raman generator driven by three sufficiently intense single-mode laser beams whose carrier frequencies are tuned off the Raman resonance with two different two-photon detunings. The Raman interaction establishes a molecular modulation through nonadibatic processes. The simulation on the basis of the fundamental rotational Raman transitions in H2 shows that sub-fs pulse can be generated by above-resonance or below-resonance Raman excitations, or even Raman excitations with opposite detunings, as is shown in Fig.1. This opens a new way for experiments to observe enhanced generation of broadband Raman sidebands, together with compression of the phase-locked Raman sidebands into sub-fs pulse trains in the same Raman media

© 2003 Optical Society of America