Time-delayed laser scattering in a multi-level atom with Raman resonance

Toshiaki Hattori, Akira Terasaki, Takayoshi Kobayashi

A new method to measure picosecond or subpicosecond vibrational-dephasing dynamics with the use of incoherent or broadband light is presented theoretically and experimentally. It is based on a transient coherent Raman process with three beams. In our experimental scheme, two of them are incoherent light from a single source, and a delay time between the two is variable. A third beam has a higher frequency than the incoherent light by a vibrational energy in a molecule of interest, and is coherent in the delay-time range of the measurement. The delay-time dependence of coherent Stokes Raman scattering (CSRS) intensity offers the information about the coherence dynamics of the vibrational transition with a resolution time determined only by the correlation time of the incoherent light. For the theoretical calculation, a three-level model of the molecular system with homogeneous broadening is used, and delay-time dependences of the CSRS signal are calculated for off-resonance and resonance cases. Dephasing dynamics of the 2915-${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$ mode in dimethylsulfoxide was observed experimentally by the new method with the use of nanosecond laser pulses, and the result agrees well with that obtained with picosecond pulses.

Roberto Buffa

Valery Alexandrovich Astapenko

Michael G. Raymer, Ian A. Walmsley

The nonlinear regime of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) may be reached in two ways. The best known is that of depletion of the pump laser as a large number of photons are scattered into the Stokes field. There is, however, another way in which gain saturation can occur, that is, by depletion of the atomic population while the laser remains undepleted. The equations which describe SRS, including damping and population inversion,1 are remarkably similar to those of well-known theories of two-level superfluorescence, and it is possible by analogy to define a delay time τ D for cooperative Raman scattering (CRS). This delay time is inversely proportional to the spontaneous scattering rate, which depends on the pump laser intensity. A sufficient condition for CRS is that the spontaneous Stokes linewidth Γ is very much greater than τ D − 1 . The only other requirement is that there be more laser photons than scatterers, so that τ D is independent of the number of scatterers. The S(1) transition in molecular hydrogen, when excited by a short (≅ 100-ps) laser pulse, provides a possible system for observing pure CRS. Similar studies have been carried out previously2 for Γ ≅ τ D − 1 .

Y. B. Band, Paul S. Julienne

We compare the results of full density matrix calculations with recently reported experimental results describing the population transfer in Na2 using Raman scattering with the fundamental laser beam temporally shifted relative to the Stokes laser beam. Our calculations confirm the conclusion that almost total transfer of the population into the terminal level of the Raman transition can be achieved when the laser frequencies are tuned to resonance and the fundamental laser beam is temporally delayed relative to the Stokes shifted laser beam but still partially overlapping it. We analyze our results when the frequencies of the lasers are tuned off-resonance as a function of the Rabi frequencies and the detuning, and compare with experimental and theoretical results. The alignment of the terminal level as a function of time displacement of the Stokes and pump beams is predicted.

Sergey V. Prants, L S Yakupova