title: Intensity dependence of two-wave mixing absorption in a resonant medium.
abstract: Two-wave mixing absorption in a supersonic beam containing I2 has been studied. The results are in agreement with theory for probe intensities comparable with the pump intensity. However, at very low probe-beam intensities, the absorption deviates substantially from the predicted value and becomes the same as that for the pump beam alone. We believe that this behavior is caused by density variations in the molecular beam and suggest that this effect can be developed into a tool for probing optical inhomogeneities on a microscopic scale.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620, USA.
authors.forename: G S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Mirick
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Djeu