Feature
Light-Wave Mixing in Quantum Gases
Nonlinear optics has come a long way since the laser. This article reviews recent progress in coherent wave mixing and introduces some new concepts that will reframe future research directions.
Since the invention of the laser in 1960, the field of nonlinear optics has exploded. In a typical nonlinear optical process, often referred to as coherent wave-mixing, several photons are absorbed simultaneously by an atomic or molecular medium, and a photon with a different frequency is produced. Under the right conditions, the generated radiation may be coherently amplified by the quantum mechanical mechanism of stimulated emission identified by Albert Einstein.
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