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Applied Optics

Mode structure effects in optical resonance excitation

H. M. Lauranto, Timo T. Kajava, Marko Santala, Rainer Salomaa

Published Apr 20, 1994• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The dependence of the excitation strength on the longitudinal mode structure of a pulsed, resonant excitation field is examined. As an experimental test case, resonance ionization signal fluctuations are studied with a two-step excitation of strontium. Successive ionization signals, the corresponding pulse energies, and the mode structures of the resonant step laser pulses are recorded. The large signal fluctuations, up to 120%, cannot be explained by the modest (1-3%) pulse-energy fluctuations of either the resonant or the photoionizing field. In the case of weak excitation, the fluctuations in the signal correlate strongly with the intensity in a narrow frequency band around the resonance. In this weak-field region, the experimental correlation curves, i.e., the correlation between the signal and the spectral intensity versus the frequency, agree well with calculations based on a simple linear-response model. With the aid of correlation analysis a resonance can be localized with a single-moderesolution. As the resonant field is increased the correlation between the signal and single-mode intensity diminishes and almost disappears at full saturation. However, also in the saturation region, the correlation technique can be applied to localize a resonance with a resolution much better than that determined by the laser linewidth.

DOI
10.1364/ao.33.002323

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The dependence of the excitation strength on the longitudinal mode structure of a pulsed, resonant excitation field is examined. As an experimental test case, resonance ionization signal fluctuations are studied with a two-step excitation of strontium. Successive ionization signals, the corresponding pulse energies, and the mode structures of the resonant step laser pulses are recorded. The large signal fluctuations, up to 120%, cannot be explained by the modest (1-3%) pulse-energy fluctuations of either the resonant or the photoionizing field. In the case of weak excitation, the fluctuations in the signal correlate strongly with the intensity in a narrow frequency band around the resonance. In this weak-field region, the experimental correlation curves, i.e., the correlation between the signal and the spectral intensity versus the frequency, agree well with calculations based on a simple linear-response model. With the aid of correlation analysis a resonance can be localized with a single-moderesolution. As the resonant field is increased the correlation between the signal and single-mode intensity diminishes and almost disappears at full saturation. However, also in the saturation region, the correlation technique can be applied to localize a resonance with a resolution much better than that determined by the laser linewidth.
The effects of amplitude and phase fluctuations of the pump laser on the resonance fluorescence under two-photon resonant excitation are studied. The averaging of the stochastic Bloch equations is carried out within the approximation scheme that has recently been applied to the case of one-photon resonant excitation. In the case of two-photon resonant excitation the stochastic pump field gives rise to multiplicative nonlinear Gaussian fluctuation effects. The phase fluctuations are treated in the phase-diffusion model, and the averaging over the amplitude fluctuations is performed by means of generating-function methods. Both the intensity and the intensity correlation of the fluorescent light are studied. When the amplitude fluctuations are weak, the cases of one- and two-photon resonant excitations are similar. The difference between both cases consists of a modification of the Rabi frequency and a faster damping of the Rabi oscillations in the two-photon case. For sufficiently fast correlation decay of the amplitude fluctuations their effect can simply be described by a rate. In the general case of n-photon resonant excitation this rate is larger by a factor of n2{n}^{2}n2 than that in the case of one-photon resonant excitation. When the amplitude fluctuations are sufficiently strong, the Rabi oscillations are ``washed out.'' In the case of one-photon resonant excitation both the intensity and the intensity correlation function of the scattered light develop into step functions over time. In the two-photon case the dynamics of both quantities is determined by a new time constant which acts as both the oscillation time and the damping time. Consequently an overshoot peak occurs in both the intensity and the intensity correlation instead of the tendency to become step functions.
The effects of different laser line shapes on the intensity and spectrum of resonance fluorescence from a two-level atom are investigated. The laser model considered is that of an ideal single-mode laser operating high above threshold, with constant amplitude and undergoing phase-frequency fluctuations analogous to Brownian motion. As the correlation time of the frequency fluctuations increases from zero to infinity, the laser line shape changes from Lorentzian to Gaussian in a continuous way. It is shown that for intermediate and strong fields, the average intensity of fluorescence in the case of a resonant broadband Lorentzian line shape is higher than that in the case of a Gaussian line shape with the same bandwidth and total power. This is in contrast to the weak-field case where the higher peak power of the Gaussian line shape makes it more effective than the Lorentzian line shape. It is also shown that in the case of a nonzero frequency correlation time (non-Lorentzian line shape) the intensity of fluorescence undergoes non-Markovian fluctuations. In relation to the spectrum of resonance fluorescence, it is shown that as the line shape is varied from Lorentzian to Gaussian the following changes take place: In the case of off-resonance excitation, the asymmetry of the spectrum decreases. In the case of resonant excitation, the center-peak to side-peak height ratio for the triplet structure increases. Moreover, the recently predicted center-line dip, which develops in the spectrum in the case of broadband excitation when the Rabi frequency and the bandwidth are nearly equal, becomes increasingly deeper.
The effects of multifrequency-mode laser radiation on polarization-spectroscopy signal generation are investigated by direct numerical integration of the time-dependent density-matrix equations. The numerical solution of the density-matrix equations allows us to incorporate a physically reasonable model for pulsed dye-laser radiation in our analysis of the laser–resonance interaction. The laser radiation is modeled as the sum of electric fields from a finite number of modes that are assumed to have random pulse-to-pulse phases and exponentially distributed amplitudes. Calculations are performed for a homogeneously broadened resonance (only collisional broadening) and for a resonance that is both collision and Doppler broadened. The effect of the multimode laser radiation on polarization-spectroscopy line shapes and saturation curves is investigated for different values of the laser bandwidth and mode spacing and resonance collision and Doppler widths. The saturation parameter for the resonance is strongly dependent on the ratio of the laser bandwidth to the resonance collision width when the laser bandwidth is greater than the collision width. The pulse-to-pulse fluctuations in polarization-spectroscopy signal levels are found to decrease substantially for saturating pump intensities. The inclusion of the multimode laser structure into our density-matrix equations represents a significant advance in modeling the nonlinear interaction of laser radiation with atomic or molecular resonances.
We have developed a computational framework for the study of the effects of field fluctuations on strongly driven nonlinear transitions. Nonlinearity may stem from cither the strong coupling (saturation) of a resonant transition or its multiphoton character, or it may stem from both in the most general case. Our approach is based on a Monte Carlo simulation of stochastic field fluctuations, which allows maximum flexibility in the stochastic nature of the field and in the type of process that is studied. Here, we report on a more general problem than has previously been considered in the interaction of atoms with stochastic fields, namely, the three-photon resonant five- photon ionization of xenon, 3 + 2 photoionization of xenon has been the subject of a fair number of experimental investigations. It involves nonlinearity in with a bound-bound and a bound-free transition as well as an ac-Stark shift. Consequently, there are correlations among three fluctuating parameters: the three-photon Rabi frequency, the two-photon ionization rate, and the intensity-dependent ac-Stark shift, and it is these correlations that make the stochastic-field problem almost intractable to traditional methods of analysis.
A quantum statistical theory of resonant optical phenomena is developed for the case when the fluctuations of the laser, used for exciting transitions, are important. The general equations describing the dynamics of a relaxing two-level atom (TLA) are solved exactly for different types of mean values and the two-time amplitude and intensity correlations. The phase-diffusion model is adopted for laser fluctuations. The exact results are used to analyze the effect of laser fluctuations on a number of optical effects-optical free-induction decay, adiabatic following, the spectrum of the scattered light from a relaxing TLA, the energy-absorption spectrum from a weak field, Hanle resonances, etc. In each case, the laser fluctuations are found to affect in an important way the characteristics of the above optical-resonance phenomena. For example, the spectrum of scattered radiation from a TLA has the usual three-peak structure for fields at resonance and with strengths $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ above the threshold and for $\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\gg}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{c}$; however, now the peak heights (widths) are in the ratio 3x3x3x (23x\frac{2}{3x}3x2​), $x=\frac{[{\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{c}+\frac{({T}_{1}^{\ensuremath{-}1}+{T}_{2}^{\ensuremath{-}1})}{3}]}{[2{\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{c}+{T}_{2}^{\ensuremath{-}1}]}$, where ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{c}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ is the correlation time for laser phase fluctuations. For ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{c}\ensuremath{\gg}\ensuremath{\alpha}$, one gets a single-peak spectrum. The laser field is treated as a second-quantized field with excitation in either a coherent state or a Fock state. The results, obtained by straightforward perturbation theory, but valid for arbitrary values of the relaxation parameters, detuning, and the laser correlation time, are also presented.