STIN
Fluorescence diagnostics in two-step laser excitation of high J atoms
Richard C. Stern, Bruce W. Shore, Norbert Lang
Abstract
Using a pair of lasers near 6000 A, the J = 6 ground state is excited to a J = 6 intermediate level and then to a J = 5 upper state. Non-resonant fluorescences from both excited states are separately detected. Results of a set of model calculations are tabulated. Level 3 average populations are always very small, since the system decays rapidly into inaccessible metastable states. This means that chemistry experiments are difficult. The differences between parallel and perpendicular polarization are modest. The fluorescence dips converge to a value near 50%. The level 3 populations do not approach a common value. This means that the most reliable experimental measurement does not determine the level populations. The most striking changes appear in the last two, most exact, models. The difference between the models is that one includes, for the first time, the linear frequency chirp produced by the fanlike spread of the focussed laser beams. This seemingly innocuous change halves the population left in the ground state. It appears that analogues of adiabatic passage and adiabatic rapid passage respectively are being observed.