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Optics Letters

Saturated-interference spectroscopy

Frank V. Kowalski, W. T. Hill, ARTHUR L. SCHAWLOW

Published May 1, 1978• 53 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The background in saturation spectroscopy is decreased by balancing the probe beam, in amplitude and phase, against a second probe, using a configuration like a Jamin interferometer. This improves the signal-to-noise ratio. If the phase is adjustable to provide best balance while the laser is tuned, the signal is proportional to the square of the absorption, and the line width is accordingly reduced.

DOI
10.1364/ol.2.000112

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The background in saturation spectroscopy is decreased by balancing the probe beam, in amplitude and phase, against a second probe, using a configuration like a Jamin interferometer. This improves the signal-to-noise ratio. If the phase is adjustable to provide best balance while the laser is tuned, the signal is proportional to the square of the absorption, and the line width is accordingly reduced.
A novel phase-modulation technique which permits subkilohertz-laser stability and new levels of precision in laser spectroscopy was reported recently. For spectroscopy, the basic arrangement consists of a combination of an optical pump and a probe field which is phase modulated. The pump prepares the atomic sample by burning a narrow hole within the atom's inhomogeneous line shape, and the probe beam samples the prepared hole when its modulation sidebands are swept into resonance. Off resonance, the probe is balanced as pairs of sidebands produce heterodyne beat signals of opposite phase which just cancel. On resonance, the balance is upset and yields a nonvanishing beat signal with a Lorentzian absorption or dispersion line shape and with residual noise approaching the shot noise limit. Here we investigate the theory of phase-modulation spectroscopy. We treat the nonlinear response of an atomic two-level quantum system subject to an intense pump and a weak copropagating or counterpropagating phase-modulated probe beam. The density-matrix equations of motion are solved by a Laplace-transform method and by the novel use of a translation operator which allows the infinite hierarchy of coupled equations to close. A solution equivalent to the rate-equation result is developed and coherence corrections are found which predict new resonances that have just been detected in this laboratory. The delayed pump-probe technique encountered in solid-state laser spectroscopy is analyzed in this context for two- and three-level quantum systems. The response of a Fabry-Perot cavity to a phase-modulated light wave is examined also and reveals an unexpected absorption feature.
Dans le but d'améliorer la sensibilité de la détection en spectroscopie de saturation, nous proposons d'associer deux méthodes : la contribution de plusieurs classes de vitesses au signal de saturation et la spectroscopie hétérodyne à très haute résolution. Le principe consiste à moduler en phase (ou en fréquence, ou en amplitude) le faisceau de sortie d'un laser monomode stabilisé en fréquence, puis à utiliser ce faisceau modulé dans une expérience de spectroscopie de saturation hétérodyne. La comparaison des résultats obtenus dans une même expérience avec et sans modulation du faisceau met en évidence le gain en sensibilité obtenu par cette méthode. Cette amélioration provient du fait qu'en spectroscopie de saturation conventionnelle on sélectionne une seule classe de vitesses, alors que dans la méthode proposée plusieurs classes de vitesses contribuent au signal.