Figure 1

Rabi oscillations of polarized beams. (a) Rabi oscillations (theory) (i) in one polarization only (till t ≈ 3 ps), resulting in an oscillating intensity (purple line) of constant polarization (yellow line), and (ii) in two polarizations, reversing the pattern of oscillations. (b) Experimental observation of the effect through the cavity field (along the diameter of the Gaussian spot of 20 μm over a 10 ps duration) with left (red) and right (blue) circular polarization as a false color plot. In the experiment, the leakage of photons results in an exponential decay of the signal. See also Supplementary Movies S1 and S2. (c) Spatial distributions of the density and polarization at 200 fs time intervals during one of the initial cycles after the second pulse arrival. As can be seen while the emitted intensity remains basically constant (height scale in c) the resulting polarization is strongly affected by the Rabi oscillations (mutual oscillations in b and polarization map in c). See also Supplementary Movie S3. The polarization can also be made homogeneous or not spatially.