Measurement of transition dipole moments in lithium dimers using electromagnetically induced transparency.

We have observed electromagnetically induced transparency in a Doppler broadened molecular cascade system using fluorescence detection. We demonstrate that the power-dependent splitting of lines in the upper-level fluorescence excitation spectrum can be used as a new spectroscopic tool for the measurement of molecular transition dipole moment functions.

Optical bistability in the frustrated-total-reflection optical cavity.

The nonlinear behavior of a frustrated-total-reflection (FTR) optical cavity containing a nonlinear Kerr medium is considered. It is shown that optical bistability may occur at lower incident power than in the nonlinear interface system. Other potential advantages of the resonant FTR configuration over other geometries are also briefly discussed.

Nonlinear absorption in direct-gap semiconductors.

Nonlinear absorption coefficients have been calculated for certain direct-bandgap semiconductors at 0.694-microm, 1.06-microm, 1.