The influence of ac Stark shifts on the three-photon ionization of cesium in a moderate-intensity laser beam is investigated. The ionization process involves a two-photon resonance with the
8d fine-structure levels. The work consists of two related parts. In the first part, atomic parameters, such as the two-photon Rabi rate and the ac Stark shift, are calculated in the nonrelativistic Hartree-Fock approximation. In the second part, the atomic parameters thus obtained are used as coefficients in a system of coupled differential equations representing the time evolution of the density matrix. Ionization line shapes are generated for a transform-limited pulsed laser of moderate intensity with a single-mode transverse structure. As the time history of the intensity profile is varied from square to smooth, the ionization line shape becomes asymmetric due to the time dependence of the ac Stark shift. The effects of varying the spatial intensity distribution of the laser light to include transverse centering and longitudinal focusing are also studied.
Three-photon ionization spectra of Ba were studied which result from two-photon resonances between the 6
s2 1S0 ground state and the 6snd J=2,6s(n+1)s
1S0 (16\ensuremath{\le}n40) Rydberg states and 5d7d
1D2,
3P0,2 perturber states. A tunable laser with field strength ${10}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}(4\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}5)}$ a.u. was used to drive the excitation in a low-density atomic beam (n\ensuremath{\lesssim}3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}
108 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}3}$). Resonant line shapes were systematically studied as a function of light polarization and intensity. Studies with linearly polarized light find all resonant line shapes manifest the same peak shift and asymmetry which is traced to the ac Stark shift of the ground state. The resonant peak height, shift, and linewidth scale linearly with light intensity which is accounted for with a rate-equation formulation.For the case of circular polarization, a distinct minimum of ionization occurs between each J=2 doublet of the 6snd series. One level (generally
3D2) is significantly broadened in comparison to the laser linewidth (0.1 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$) with increasing intensity while its sister level remains narrow (\ensuremath{\sim}0.2 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$). Further, light shifts of the
3D2 states are generally \ensuremath{\gtrsim}1 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$ to the red while shifts of
1D2 states are negligible. This behavior switches for the n=27 doublet. Lastly, the dynamic shifts are not quadratic with the field strength. These effects are attributed in part to cancellation due to channel interference and a two-photon Raman process which mixes each J=2 doublet. These processes act in conjunction with the ac Stark effect to produce the observed profile behavior. The shifts and coupling of the excited states are attributed to the influence of the 6pnd ${J}^{\ensuremath{\pi}}$${=3}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ autoionization series and are shown to be sensitive to the singlet-triplet mixing coefficient \ensuremath{\beta} of the J=2 doublets. A perturbation analysis is introduced which accounts for the salient features of the data, although it does not include bandwidth and saturation effects. Calculations of light shifts of the 6snd J=2 levels based on this analysis require \ensuremath{\beta} be modified from previous assignments based on hfs measurements for n in the vicinity of the 5d7d
1D2 perturber.
We present a theoretical analysis of a recent experiment [ J. Opt. Soc. Am. B6, 1513 ( 1989)] on two-color three-photon ionization of Xe through resonant even-parity Rydberg states. We calculate second-order ac-Stark shifts, two-photon Rabi frequencies, and ionization widths by using wave functions obtained from a multichannel quantum-defect-theory analysis of the Rydberg series in Xe. We perform a detailed description of the experiment, using the density-matrix formalism, accounting for the temporal and spatial distributions of the laser fields. The agreement with the experiment is good except for the ac-Stark shift of the Rydberg states, which, in our calculation is close to the ponderomotive energy, whereas in the experiment it is measured to be half of this value.
Summary form only given. We investigated the effect of temporal and spatial characteristics not only on the ionization spectrum but on the excited-state population. From the calculational results in which Gaussian temporal and spatial variation was assumed, it was found that the nonuniformity of a laser made the shift of ionization peak frequency different from that of excitation peak frequency. This result indicates that measurement of an ac Stark shift cross section by detecting the fluorescence emitted from an excited state might give the different results comparing with the ionization spectrum measurement case.
We present a theory of Stark splitting in doubly resonant three-photon ionization (three-level system) with nonmonochromatic fields. The asymmetry of the peaks of the resonance curve due to Stark splitting is shown to be reversed when the laser bandwidth is larger than the width of the atomic transitions of the resonant states. It is further shown that ionization as well as the probe field have a significant effect on the features of the splitting. Similar effects are found with monochromatic fields in the presence of an additional level near the initial level (four-level system). The results of the analysis are in general qualitative agreement with existing observations.
This work reports the multiphoton ionization of cesium atoms, via resonance with the
6F level, by interaction with a single transverse and longitudinal mode neodymium-glass laser beam. At a low rate of ion production, when the laser frequency is tuned through resonance, the laser intensity necessary to create a constant number of ions passes through a minimum, as expected, for a three-photon energy equal to the unperturbed $6S\ensuremath{\rightarrow}6F$ transition energy. But for a higher ionization rate, involving larger laser intensities, a departure from expectation is observed which is interpreted as a consequence of an energy shift of the transition. The level shifts are demonstrated in another way by their strong effect on the experimental order of nonlinearity of the interaction,
Kexpt. A sharp variation of
Kexpt is observed when the energy shift of the $6S\ensuremath{\rightarrow}6F$ transition exactly compensates the wavelength detuning of the laser. The latter method gives shift values which are found to be independent of the large variations of the interaction volume under conditions of resonance. Both methods give a linear dependence of the shifts on the laser intensity. Identification of these shifts with energy shifts of the $6S\ensuremath{\rightarrow}6F$ transition is subject to theoretical reservations and needs further experimentation.