Optics Letters

Observation of optical pumping of mesospheric sodium

THOMAS H. JEYS, E. J. Kibblewhite, Richard M. Heinrichs, Kevin F. Wall, J. Korn, T. C. Hotaling

Published Aug 15, 1992• 23 citations

Abstract

We have observed a large variation with laser polarization in the amount of laser light resonantly backscattered from the Earth's mesospheric sodium layer located at a 90-km altitude. This variation is evidence of optical pumping of mesospheric sodium atoms.

DOI: 10.1364/ol.17.001143

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Optics Letters

Observation of optical pumping of mesospheric sodium

THOMAS H. JEYS, E. J. Kibblewhite, Richard M. Heinrichs, Kevin F. Wall, J. Korn, T. C. Hotaling

Published Aug 15, 1992• 23 citations

Publisher

Abstract

DOI: 10.1364/ol.17.001143

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Observation of Optical Tristability in Sodium Vapors

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Optical tristability via optical pumping has been observed in the transmission of a Fabry-Perot interferometer containing Na vapor irradiated by light from a cw dye laser on the high-frequency wing of the ${D}_{1}$ line. For linearly polarized incident light, three stable states appear in the polarization of the transmitted light: ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{+}$ dominant, ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\ensuremath{-}}$ dominant, and linear polarization.Optical tristability via optical pumping has been observed in the transmission of a Fabry-Perot interferometer containing Na vapor irradiated by light from a cw dye laser on the high-frequency wing of the ${D}_{1}$ line. For linearly polarized incident light, three stable states appear in the polarization of the transmitted light: ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{+}$ dominant, ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\ensuremath{-}}$ dominant, and linear polarization.

Physical Review LettersDec 27, 198281 citations

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{D}_{1}

line. For linearly polarized incident light, three stable states appear in the polarization of the transmitted light: ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{+}$ dominant, ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\ensuremath{-}}$ dominant, and linear polarization.

A highly polarized

^{23}\mathrm{Na}

atomic beam is produced by optical pumping with the use of either a multimode cw dye laser or a single-mode ring dye laser followed by a double-passed acousto-optic modulator. Electron-spin polarizations of 0.72 to 0.90 are obtained.

We have performed experimental and theoretical studies of the deflection of a sodium atomic beam by a laser tuned to the 3

{\mathrm{}}^{2}

{S}_{1/2}

,F=2--3

{\mathrm{}}^{2}

{P}_{3/2}

,F=3 transition. The intensity profile of the deflected beam was measured at different laser power levels and for different laser polarizations. Calculations using a constant force derived from a two-level atom yield deflections which are too large. The results of more realistic simulation calculations agree very well with the measured deflection. Those calculations incorporate the atomic-beam spatial and velocity distributions as well as the laser frequency distribution and polarization state. Optical pumping, loss of atoms to the nonresonant F=1 ground state, and Doppler shifting of the atoms out of resonance are all considered, as also are the statistics and angular distributions of the spontaneous photons.