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Annalen der Physik

Rate Equations for Light‐Induced Drift

Jos E. M. Haverkort, J. P. Woerdman

Published Jan 1, 1990• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We present a numerical model aiming at a realistic description of light‐induced drift of multilevel atoms in a buffer gas, specializing to case of Na atoms in a noble gas. The model is based on the optical Bloch equations in which the effect of collisions is incorporated by introducing Keilson‐Storer collision kernels. By marking a connection with kinetic theory all adjustable parameters may be fixed.

DOI
10.1002/andp.19905020702

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We report on an experimental investigation of the collision kernels governing the effects of velocity-changing collisions, fine-structure-changing collisions, and their interplay, for Na--noble-gas pairs. The velocity distributions in the two Na excited-state fine-structure levels and in the Na ground-state hyperfine levels have been measured in the presence of a pump laser which produces velocity-selective excitation. For interpretation of these experiments we use a rate-equation model developed in the context of light-induced drift: the velocity-changing collisions are accounted for by a composite Keilson-Storer kernel describing large-angle and small-angle collisions and the fine-structure-changing collisions are treated in the sudden limit. The model is valid for arbitrarily high pump laser intensities and uses only a single adjustable parameter characterizing the small-angle scattering. It is found that the theory describes the experimental velocity distributions in all four Na levels over a wide range of experimental parameters for each Na--noble-gas pair. The relevance of the collision kernels deduced in the present work is discussed in the context of light-induced drift.

Physical Review A•Dec 1, 1987•26 citations
Abstract We present a numerical model aiming at a realistic description of light‐induced drift of multilevel atoms in a buffer gas, specializing to case of Na atoms in a noble gas. The model is based on the optical Bloch equations in which the effect of collisions is incorporated by introducing Keilson‐Storer collision kernels. By marking a connection with kinetic theory all adjustable parameters may be fixed.
We present a model for light-induced drift (LID) in the Na--noble-gas system which should enable direct comparison with experiment. In contrast to previous theories of LID based on a two-level description of the optical absorbers and on a simplified collision treatment, the present model is based on a realistic description of laser-driven Na atoms immersed in a buffer gas. Starting from the generalized Bloch equations, we introduce a rate-equation model for the velocity distributions in the four important Na levels. The velocity-changing and fine-structure-changing collisions are described using composite Keilson-Storer collision kernels in which all adjustable parameters have been eliminated by using available literature data. We apply the model in numerical calculations of LID as a function of all experimentally accessible parameters. It is found that the ground-state hyperfine splitting can have large effects on LID, whereas the excited-state fine-structure splitting has not. The paper establishes criteria for optimum LID effects; when using a single-frequency laser the maximum attainable drift velocity is predicted to be 13.8 m/s. Using a proper set of boundary conditions, we find a pressure dependence of LID qualitatively different from the predictions based on previous work. Finally, the influence of the collision model is investigated. We find that LID is independent of the shape of the collision kernel, indicating that a strong-collision model is always valid.
The authors consider a system of optically active two-state atoms immersed in a buffer gas and irradiated by a light beam. The corresponding Bloch equations are augmented by Keilson-Storer (KS) collision kernels (1952) which account for velocity-changing collisions. Expansion of the density operator elements in the eigenfunctions of KS kernels allows one to obtain exact solutions for the Laplace transforms of the density operator elements which may be expressed as rational approximants with any prescribed degree of accuracy. As an example they apply this method to discussion of the light-induced drift effect. In particular they give analytic expressions for the drift velocity, which are illustrated by numerical results. Finally, they briefly discuss possible generalisations and applications of the presented method.
The authors consider a system of two-level atoms coupled to a radiation field and immersed in a buffer gas. The corresponding Bloch-like equations are augmented by collision operators stemming from the linear Boltzmann equation. Collision operators describe velocity-changing collisions that give rise to various kinetic effects of light. They study the general properties of collision operators, the main one consisting of the fact that such operators are Hermitian in a suitably defined space of velocity distribution functions They introduce a set of functions that serve as approximations to the eigenfunctions. The eigenvalues are connected with transport coefficients (they give an example of such a relation), but they keep eigenvalues as free parameters of the approach. In this way the authors can describe the whole class of collision operators, the Keilson-Storer model being a particular example. Employing the introduced eigenfunctions they derive and formally solve the equations of motion for the expansion coefficients of the elements of the density matrix of active atoms.
Conventional light-induced drift is based on purely elastic velocity-changing collisions. The authors discuss qualitatively the potentialities of light-induced drift originating from inelastic velocity-changing collisions, which may occur in a molecular buffer gas. In such collisions a large fraction of the electronic excitation energy of the absorbing particle may be transformed into kinetic energy thus affecting light-induced drift. The authors report experiments on light-induced drift of Na in various molecular buffer gases and compare these with their predictions.
We report on an experimental investigation of the collision kernels governing the effects of velocity-changing collisions, fine-structure-changing collisions, and their interplay, for Na--noble-gas pairs. The velocity distributions in the two Na excited-state fine-structure levels and in the Na ground-state hyperfine levels have been measured in the presence of a pump laser which produces velocity-selective excitation. For interpretation of these experiments we use a rate-equation model developed in the context of light-induced drift: the velocity-changing collisions are accounted for by a composite Keilson-Storer kernel describing large-angle and small-angle collisions and the fine-structure-changing collisions are treated in the sudden limit. The model is valid for arbitrarily high pump laser intensities and uses only a single adjustable parameter characterizing the small-angle scattering. It is found that the theory describes the experimental velocity distributions in all four Na levels over a wide range of experimental parameters for each Na--noble-gas pair. The relevance of the collision kernels deduced in the present work is discussed in the context of light-induced drift.