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Optics Letters

Optical spectroscopy of rubidium Rydberg atoms with a 297 nm frequency-doubled dye laser

Pierre Thoumany, Theodor W. Hänsch, Gernot Stania, Linas Urbonas, Th. Becker

Published May 19, 2009• 44 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate Doppler-free, purely optical detection of laser-excited rubidium Rydberg atoms in a room-temperature gas cell. The Rydberg atoms are excited with a frequency-doubled dye laser at 297 nm in a single-excitation step from the ground state; the detection is performed with a 780 nm diode laser in a scheme similar to electron shelving. Laser spectroscopy of Rydberg transitions is demonstrated, and a frequency-doubled dye is stabilized to one Rydberg transition in the UV. The performance of this stabilization is measured with an atomic-beam apparatus and a time of flight experiment.

DOI
10.1364/ol.34.001621

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Laser Physics•Dec 20, 2019•1 citation
We demonstrate Doppler-free, purely optical detection of laser-excited rubidium Rydberg atoms in a room-temperature gas cell. The Rydberg atoms are excited with a frequency-doubled dye laser at 297 nm in a single-excitation step from the ground state; the detection is performed with a 780 nm diode laser in a scheme similar to electron shelving. Laser spectroscopy of Rydberg transitions is demonstrated, and a frequency-doubled dye is stabilized to one Rydberg transition in the UV. The performance of this stabilization is measured with an atomic-beam apparatus and a time of flight experiment.
We demonstrate the single-photon excitation spectra of cesium Rydberg atoms by means of a Doppler-free purely all-optical detection with a room-temperature vapor cell and a 319 nm ultra-violet (UV) laser. We excite atoms directly from 6S1/2 ground state to 71P3/2 Rydberg state with a narrow-linewidth 319 nm UV laser. The detection of Rydberg states is performed by monitoring the absorption of an 852 nm probe beam in a V-type three-level system. With a strong coupling light, we observe the Autler-Townes (AT) doublet, and the dependences of the separation and linewidths on the coupling intensity are experimentally investigated, which is consistent with the prediction based on the dressed state theory. Moreover, the AT splitting can be used to measure the Rabi frequency. In an external magnetic field, the Rydberg spectra of nondegenerate Zeeman sublevels are demonstrated. The splitting of the spectrum is of great significance for studying the characteristics of Rydberg atoms.
A three-step laser excitation scheme is used to make absolute frequency measurements of highly excited nF 7/2 Rydberg states in 85 Rb for principal quantum numbers n=33–100. This work demonstrates the first absolute frequency measurements of rubidium Rydberg levels using a purely optical detection scheme. The Rydberg states are excited in a heated Rb vapour cell and Doppler-free signals are detected via purely optical means. All of the frequency measurements are made using a wavemeter that is calibrated against a Global Positioning System (GPS)-disciplined self-referenced optical frequency comb. We find that the measured levels have a very high frequency stability, and are especially robust against electric fields. The apparatus has allowed measurements of the states to an accuracy of 8.0 MHz. The new measurements are analysed by extracting the modified Rydberg–Ritz series parameters.
We report the measurement of the absolute transition frequencies of 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms to the nP1/2n{P}_{1/2}nP1/2​ (n=34−−52n=34--52n=34−−52) and nP3/2n{P}_{3/2}nP3/2​ (n=34−−90n=34--90n=34−−90) Rydberg states by performing single-photon Rydberg excitation spectroscopy in a vapor cell. Rydberg transitions were detected by monitoring the transmission of a 780-nm probe beam. Based on the spectroscopic data, we determined the fine-splitting intervals and oscillator-strength ratios of the nPnPnP doublets and also extracted the quantum defects and ionization frequency. These results extend the spectroscopic information of the nPnPnP Rydberg series, providing basic knowledge for further applications to Rydberg atoms.
We demonstrate a single-photon Rydberg excitation spectroscopy of cesium (Cs) atoms in a room-temperature vapor cell. Cs atoms are excited directly from 6S1/2 ground state to nP3/2 (n = 70 - 100) Rydberg states with a 318.6 nm ultraviolet (UV) laser,and Rydberg excitation spectra are obtained by transmission enhancement of a probe beam resonant to Cs 6S1/2, F = 4 - 6P3/2, F' = 5 transition as partial population on F = 4 ground state are transferred to Rydberg state .Analysis reveals that the observed spectra are velocity-selective spectroscopy of Rydberg state, from which the amplitude and linewidth influenced by lasers'Rabi frequency have been investigated. Fitting to energies of Cs nP3/2 (n = 70 -100) states, the determined quantum defect is 3.56671(42). The demodulated spectra can also be employed as frequency references to stabilize the UV laser frequency to specific Cs Rydberg transition.
Abstract We present a laser frequency locking scheme for the high excited transition of rubidium, which cannot be directly referenced by atomic absorption spectroscopy. Double resonance optical pumping spectroscopy and two-photon transition spectroscopy of a 5 S → 5 P → 5 D transition are obtained in a room temperature vapor cell and employed as the reference sources. An Allan deviation of 1.71 × 10 −12 at an averaging time of 2048 s with a residual frequency fluctuation of ±0.2 MHz over 7000 s is obtained by two-photon transition spectroscopy. The case of double resonance optical pumping spectroscopy presents an Allan deviation of 4.86 × 10 −12 at an averaging time of 2048 s with a residual frequency fluctuation of ±0.4 MHz over 7000 s. One distinct advantage of two-photon transition spectroscopy method is demonstrated by the analysis of the fast Fourier transform of error signal. A narrower full width at half-maximum of two-photon transition spectroscopy and a higher zero crossing slope by using a frequency modulation method lead to a better frequency stabilization. This work provides a technical basis for the laser frequency stabilization based on atomic and molecular transition spectroscopy, and it also supplies a new frequency standard for optical telecommunication applications.