Effective noncollinear four-wave parametric interaction in atomic barium vapor subjected to picosecond pump pulses

An investigation was made of a noncollinear transient four-wave parametric interaction in an atomic barium vapor subjected to the first and second harmonics of tunable neodymium-activated phosphate glass and YAG:Nd³⁺ lasers emitting picosecond pulses. Variation of the angle between the pump beams was used to control the characteristics of the signal and idler pulses. When the pump radiation was supplied only by a master oscillator, it was possible to generate relatively simply ultrashort pulses tunable near 0.98 μm. A comparison was made with a theory of transient four-wave parametric interaction, which was valid also in saturating pump fields.