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Journal of Physics B Atomic and Molecular Physics

Tunable dye laser spectroscopy of atomic calcium: collisional redistribution of radiation

Alan Corney, J V M McGinley

Published Sep 14, 1981• 27 citations
Publisher

Abstract

By tuning a pulsed dye laser through the resonance line of calcium at 422.7 nm the authors have investigated the spectral redistribution of laser radiation by calcium vapour. Two main components were resolved in the side emission from an oven containing calcium vapour and argon buffer gas. These are produced by Rayleigh scattering and by collision-induced fluorescence. The intensity of the Rayleigh component was found to vary as Delta -2 where Delta = omega 21 - omega L is the laser detuning from resonance. In contrast the intensity of the collision-induced fluorescence showed a markedly asymmetric dependence on detuning. Detailed studies of the collision-induced fluorescence have enabled the complete line shape of the calcium resonance line perturbed by argon to be determined. The interpretation of this data in terms of a frequency-dependent collision rate, gamma E ( Delta ), is discussed. This paper also reports calculations of theoretical line profiles using the unified Franck-Condon theory and trial interatomic difference potentials. The comparison of the experimental and theoretical line profiles enables the range of validity of the unified Franck-Condon theory to be assessed and the form of the optimum Ca-Ar difference potential to be selected.

DOI
10.1088/0022-3700/14/17/012

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Journal of the Chemical Society Faraday Transactions 2 Molecular and Chemical Physics•Jan 1, 1983•25 citations
By tuning a pulsed dye laser through the resonance line of calcium at 422.7 nm the authors have investigated the spectral redistribution of laser radiation by calcium vapour. Two main components were resolved in the side emission from an oven containing calcium vapour and argon buffer gas. These are produced by Rayleigh scattering and by collision-induced fluorescence. The intensity of the Rayleigh component was found to vary as Delta -2 where Delta = omega 21 - omega L is the laser detuning from resonance. In contrast the intensity of the collision-induced fluorescence showed a markedly asymmetric dependence on detuning. Detailed studies of the collision-induced fluorescence have enabled the complete line shape of the calcium resonance line perturbed by argon to be determined. The interpretation of this data in terms of a frequency-dependent collision rate, gamma E ( Delta ), is discussed. This paper also reports calculations of theoretical line profiles using the unified Franck-Condon theory and trial interatomic difference potentials. The comparison of the experimental and theoretical line profiles enables the range of validity of the unified Franck-Condon theory to be assessed and the form of the optimum Ca-Ar difference potential to be selected.
This paper reports on our studies of near-resonant scattering of laser light in a collisional environment. A pulsed dye laser with a peak power of 55 MW/cm2{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}cm2 was tuned near the 460.73-nm resonance line of strontium and the side emission was observed from an oven containing both strontium vapor and argon buffer gas. The emission was composed of three spectral components: Rayleigh scattering at the frequency of the laser ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{L}$, fluorescence at the resonance frequency ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}$ of strontium, and a third component at $2{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{L}\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}$. These three components have been studied as a function of the frequency and intensity of the laser and also as a function of the argon buffer gas pressure. While the Rayleigh emission was found to vary as ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ ($\ensuremath{\Delta}={\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{L}$), the fluorescence component, which was produced by Sr-Ar collisions, was found to be asymmetric with the sign of $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ as predicted by line-broadening theory. By measuring the ratio of the intensities of the fluorescence and Rayleigh components, we were able to measure directly the collisional redistribution function, important in the study of radiative transfer in stellar and planetary atmospheres. At high laser intensities all three components were found to saturate. The results were compared with the theoretical predictions of Mollow's steady-state theory. Theoretical fits for the high-intensity results were obtained when the collisional cross sections were taken to be considerably smaller than in our low-intensity measurements. We believe the discrepancy lies in the use of a steady-state theory for a transient experiment. Effects of radiative trapping and spatial averaging are also discussed.
Strontium vapour was irradiated by a dye laser tuned near the 460.73 nm ( 1 P 1 0 - 1 S 0 ) resonance transition. Collision-induced fluorescence at the resonance frequency and Rayleigh scattering at the laser frequency were studied as a function of detuning Delta over a range of about 30 nm (1500 cm -1 ). The Rayleigh component was found to vary as Delta -2 , as expected, whereas the collision-induced fluorescence was markedly asymmetric. This experiment constitutes a direct measurement of the redistribution function.
The authors have studied collisional redistribution of near-resonance radiation in thallium vapour caused by collisions with argon buffer gas. Electronic Raman scattering and collision-induced fluorescence were spectrally resolved, both to the weakly populated metastable 6 2 P 3/2 level in thallium. Thus the problem with radiative trapping encountered in previous experiments is partially avoided. By measuring the total collision-induced fluorescence as a function of the incident laser frequency, the absolute collisional redistribution line shape is obtained.
Experiments on collisionally assisted two-photon absorption (TPA) in calcium vapour buffered by argon gas have been performed using two tunable dye lasers. Both direct TPA and stepwise transitions through the collisionally populated resonance level. 4s4p 1 P 1 , have been observed. Detailed study of the lineshapes of the stepwise transitions to the 4p 2 1 S 0 , 4p 2 1 D 2 and 4s6s 1 S 0 levels reveals large differences in the strengths of the Ca-Ar interatomic potentials for these levels. These differences probably arise from configuration mixing.
Redistribution and depolarisation of light scattered by atoms undergoing collisions outside the impact region of the line profile has been studied experimentally and theoretically. In a cell experiment intensity and linear degree of polarisation of the fluorescence components 32S1/2 to or from 32P1/2,3/2 of Na atoms induced by collisions with Ar buffer gas atoms were measured as functions of the laser frequency omega L. The decrease of polarisation of the D2 component observed when omega L is shifted away from the D2 toward D1 resonance disagrees with calculations on the basis of the factorisation approximation of the theory of redistribution. Using Baylis (1975) potentials for the Na/Ar system, the effect is interpreted in terms of adiabatic coupling of the 32P3/2 electronic angular momentum to the collision axis during 'strong' collisions, giving rise to a greater than average depolarisation.
We present a kinetic study of the low-lying electronically excited state of atomic calcium, Ca[4s4p(3PJ)], 1.885 eV above the 4s2(1S0) ground state. Ca(4 3P1) was generated by dye-laser pulsed excitation at λ= 657.3 nm of calcium vapour [Ca(4 3P1)â†� Ca(4 1S0)] at elevated temperatures (1000 K), in equilibrium with solid calcium, in a slow-flow system, kinetically equivalent to a static system. Following rapid Boltzmann equilibration within Ca(4 3PJ) through collisions, the forbidden time-resolved atomic resonance fluorescence at the same wavelength was monitored using boxcar integration. The decay of Ca(4 3PJ) in the presence of all the noble gases, He, Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe, was studied, yielding measurements of relative diffusion coefficients. Extrapolation of the diffusional component of the decay in each noble gas to infinite pressure yields an independent value of the mean radiative lifetime for Ca(4 3P1)→ Ca(4 1S0)+hν(λ= 657.3 nm), the average of which from the measurements in all the noble gases yields τe= 0.34 ± 0.02 ms (error 2σ). This result is compared with values reported from previous measurements, particularly atomic beams and time-resolved measurements. The kinetic analysis also gives rise to data for the collisional quenching of Ca(4 3PJ), which is found to be insignificant for most of the noble gases [kHe,Ne,Ar,Kr⩽ 4 × 10–15 cm3 molecule–1 s–1(1000 K)], in contrast to measurements from earlier work using phase-shift techniques. Xenon, however, exhibited measurable rates of collisional quenching of Ca(4 3PJ) characterised by kXe= 2.4 ± 0.3 × 10–14 cm3 molecule–1 s–1(1000 K). The time-resolved emission technique is further applied to the study of the removal of Ca(4 3PJ) by added gases, for which we report (errors 1σ)kN2=(8.9 ± 0.9)× 10–13 cm3 molecule–1 s–1(1000 K), kH2=(6.0 ± 0.6)× 10–14 cm3 molecule–1 s–1(1000 K), kD2=(2.7 ± 0.3)× 10–14 cm3 molecule–1 s–1(1000 K).