Stabilization of Atoms in a High Field as a Method of Generation and Amplification of Coherent Radiation in a Nonequilibrium Laser Plasma

The possibility of using the stabilization of Rydberg atoms in intense laser fields to create a plasma channel with population inversion and subsequent generation or amplification of radiation has been studied. The generation and amplification of mid-infrared radiation in a plasma channel formed in a gas by a femtosecond laser pulse have been analyzed within the framework of the semiclassical theory of lasing based on the joint solution of the wave equation for the amplified pulse and the Neumann equation for the density matrix describing the gaseous medium. Estimates show that the gain for the mid-infrared region under typical conditions of stabilization and trapping of populations in Rydberg states can reach ~10 2 cm –1 , which makes it possible to obtain megawatt picosecond pulses.