Journal of the Optical Society of America B
Doppler-free laser spectroscopic techniques with optical pumping in D_1 lines of alkali atoms
Shigeru Nakayama
Abstract
A theoretical analysis of the D1 lines of alklai atoms in Doppler-free polarization spectroscopy, velocity-selective optical-pumping (VSOP) spectroscopy, and saturation spectroscopy is presented that uses the approximation of a single cycle of optical pumping in a four-level system. The similarities and differences among these three kinds of spectroscopy are made clear, and the magnitude and the sign of the resonances in each spectroscopic technique are calculated. The four-level system is as important as a three-level approximation, which has already been described in many papers. We deal with linear and circular optical anisotropies induced in polarization, VSOP, and saturation spectroscopy.