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Optics Letters

Saturation spectroscopy in optically thick three-level gas media

C. Schmidt-Iglesias, L. Roso, R. Corbalán

Published Jan 1, 1990• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

High-contrast transmission spectra arising from saturated absorption in optically thick Doppler-broadened threelevel media are analyzed within the formalism of Maxwell-Bloch-type equations. It is found that although in the strong pumping engine propagation-induced line narrowing and light-shift elimination occur, spectral features lying within the natural linewidth cannot be resolved.

DOI
10.1364/ol.15.000063

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Journal of the Optical Society of America B•Apr 1, 1987•25 citations
High-contrast transmission spectra arising from saturated absorption in optically thick Doppler-broadened threelevel media are analyzed within the formalism of Maxwell-Bloch-type equations. It is found that although in the strong pumping engine propagation-induced line narrowing and light-shift elimination occur, spectral features lying within the natural linewidth cannot be resolved.
The line shapes of saturation spectroscopy in optically thick two-level media are calculated for atomic and molecular transitions. Line narrowing and distortion effects due to propagation are presented. For Doppler-broadened media it is shown that, due to multiphoton processes, the natural linewidth limits the ultimate narrowing that can be reached. Thus, up to ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{0}L=20,$ only when the rate-equation approximation is valid subhomogeneous linewidths are expected.
Saturated absorption spectroscopy linewidths down to half the natural linewidth have been obtained for the sodium D1{\mathit{D}}_{1}D1​ transition in a strongly absorbing gas cell. The strong-line-narrowing effect is achieved by using an experimental ``tandem'' approach with two absorbing cells in series, where the saturated absorption output from the first cell is used as an input beam for a saturated absorption measurement in the second cell. A physical interpretation of the line-narrowing mechanism in highly absorbing media is presented, which, among other things, explains why the narrowing effects are different for crossover transitions. It is further argued that in these experiments the line-narrowing effect is caused by optical pumping and can be appropriately described by rate equations. This is different from several other recent papers on high-contrast transmission spectroscopy, where full Bloch vector models were necessary to fully describe the line shapes. Here a rate equation model, which includes two spatial dimensions, is developed, and reasonable agreement is obtained between experimental and theoretical data. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
This work examines absorption spectrometry by narrowband light in gaseous media with arbitrary optical thickness when the light induces optical saturation or optical pumping. Two quantities are defined: the observed absorbance, A(obs), and the true absorbance, A(true). The former is the absorbance that is measured under the existing conditions, whereas the latter represents the absorbance one would measure if the light acted solely as a probe of the populations of the various levels, and it is therefore directly proportional to the concentration or density of absorbers. A general integral equation for the propagation of light in media of arbitrary optical thickness in which the light influences the populations of the levels involved is derived. This expression is transcendental in the observed absorbance and cannot be solved analytically. It is shown that an analytical expression can be derived by investigating the inverse relationship, i.e., A(true) = f(A(obs)). Inasmuch as collision and Doppler broadened media react differently to optical saturation, they are considered separately. It is shown that a nonlinear response results if the medium is optically saturated (or pumped) and not optically thin. Expressions for the error introduced if the technique of standard additions is uncritically applied to such a system are derived.
Saturation effects affecting absorption and fluorescence spectra of an atomic vapor confined in an extremely thin cell (cell thickness $L<1\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$) are investigated experimentally and theoretically. The study is performed on the D2{D}_{2}D2​ line $(\ensuremath{\lambda}=852\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm})$ of Cs and concentrates on the two situations $L=\ensuremath{\lambda}∕2$ and $L=\ensuremath{\lambda}$, the most contrasted ones with respect to the length dependence of the coherent Dicke narrowing. For $L=\ensuremath{\lambda}∕2$, the Dicke-narrowed absorption profile simply broadens and saturates in amplitude when increasing the light intensity, while for $L=\ensuremath{\lambda}$, sub-Doppler dips of reduced absorption at the line-center appear on the broad absorption profile. For a fluorescence detection at $L=\ensuremath{\lambda}$, saturation induces narrow dips, but only for hyperfine components undergoing a population loss through optical pumping. These experimental results are interpreted with the help of the various existing models and are compared with numerical calculations based upon a two-level modeling that considers both a closed and an open system.
Nonlinear effects of sublevel coherence on resonant backward-degenerate four-wave mixing are analyzed in the saturation regime of an inhomogeneously broadened and optically thin gas medium, composed of \ensuremath{\Lambda}-type three-level atoms. No limitations are set to the pump-field intensities, and an analytical approach is presented in the Doppler limit and efficient transverse-optical-pumping regime. It is shown that coherent population trapping due to strong pump-field coupling has a negligible incidence in phase conjugation, while interference of two imbalanced coherent-population-injection channels determines the mixing process. Level-crossing emission resonances are found to exhibit particular line-shape characteristics: (1) an insensitivity to power shifts, (2) strong power-broadening accompanied by incomplete line splitting, or (3) field-induced line-broadening inhibition. The conditions under which these effects should be observable are identified, and their dependence on pump imbalance is remarked.
Doppler-free saturation spectroscopy in the regime of strong pumping intensities and optically thick atomic samples is investigated experimentally and theoretically. It is shown that a very high signal-to-background ratio can be obtained and, at the same time, subnatural linewidths can be reached. Further contrast and linewidth improvements can be attained by supplementing the primary depleted pumping beam with a second pumping beam. By using the signal beam from a first setup as the pumping beam for a second identical arrangement, extreme values for contrast and linewidth should be attainable.