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Journal de physique

Selective reflection from sodium vapour at low densities

A.L.J. Burgmans, J. P. Woerdman

Published Jan 1, 1976• 48 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report an extensive study of the reflectivity of a glass-sodium vapour interface near the sodium D1 and D2 resonance lines for low sodium vapour densities (1014-1016 atoms cm -3). The observed reflection spectra are narrower than predicted by conventional dispersion theory. The experimental results are compared with recent calculations based on a theory in which not only atom-atom collisions are taken into account, as in the conventional theory, but also atom-wall collisions.

DOI
10.1051/jphys:01976003706067700

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We report an extensive study of the reflectivity of a glass-sodium vapour interface near the sodium D1 and D2 resonance lines for low sodium vapour densities (1014-1016 atoms cm -3). The observed reflection spectra are narrower than predicted by conventional dispersion theory. The experimental results are compared with recent calculations based on a theory in which not only atom-atom collisions are taken into account, as in the conventional theory, but also atom-wall collisions.
Fluorescence spectra of atomic vapours may contain sub-Doppler structure due to the transient behaviour of the light-induced polarization of atoms which have just collided at the wall of the cell containing the vapour. This structure arises in spectra measured in reflection and in emission produced by atoms within a wavelength distance from the entrance window of the cell. Excitation spectra of transmitted light and laterally scattered light are not affected by the atom–wall collisions. Absorption and dispersion of light in an atomic vapour is conventionally described by a complex-valued and frequency-dependent index of refraction. In the presence of atom–wall collisions this theoretical description fails. This report gives an account of how the theory may be modified to include atom–wall collisions; it is assumed that the induced polarization of an atom is lost in such collisions. The modified theory qualitatively describes the experimental results. We review the conventional theory, the modified theory and the experiments featuring sub-Doppler structure related to the transient polarization behaviour.
We have experimentally investigated the selective reflection of the $P\ensuremath{-}D$ transition in a high-density rubidium vapor and shown it to be sensitive to the exact spatial distribution of PPP-state atoms near the dielectric-vapor interface. This distribution results from the radiative and nonradiative transport of excitation and from wall-quenching collisions of excited-state atoms and is highly inhomogeneous. Selective reflection thus acts as a probe of the spatial dispersion in the vapor. The resulting spectra have been analyzed to show that the broadening due to $S\ensuremath{-}D$ collisions contributes considerably to the self-broadened linewidth of the $P\ensuremath{-}D$ transition.
We discuss the properties of selective reflection spectroscopy at the interface between a resonant vapor and a complex dense medium, such as a metallic film layered on a dielectric substrate. We show that in the approximation of a low-density vapor, the signal mixes up the absorptive and dispersive components of the "effective resonant susceptibility" of the vapor, with the mixture amount governed by simple laws of linear optics. Preliminary experiments performed at the interface between Cs vapor (D2, 852-nm line) and a silver-coated glass window are reported, that show qualitatively the effect of the atom-surface van der Waals interaction.