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Applied Optics

Ultrasensitive Detection of Cs Vapor by Intracavity Laser Quenching

W. J. Childs, Mark S. Fred, Leonard S. Goodman

Published Oct 1, 1974• 31 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Intracavity laser quenching has been used to detect 9 x 10(7) atoms of Cs vapor. An enhancement factor of about 2000 over the sensitivity for single-pass detection is observed. Known techniques should make it possible to increase the sensitivity level to near 10(6) atoms.
DOI
10.1364/ao.13.002297

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A new technique for quantitative detection of atomic absorption by intracavity dye-laser quenching is studied. For the sodium D(2) line, a sensitivity of 7 x 10(4) atoms/cm(3) x 1% quenching is obtained; and the sensitivity in single-pass detection is 4 x 10(8) atoms/cm(3) x 1% absorption for a 15-cm cell. Use of a cw dye laser improves the sensitivity and the stability. The dependence of the sensitivity on the bandwidth of laser action is measured, and a simple theoretical consideration is given for single-pass absorption.
Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) was studied in the 400–1000 nm wavelength range using narrow-band 852 nm laser radiation resonant with Cs atomic 6S1/2 → 6P3/2 transition. T-shaped cells made entirely of technical sapphire with thicknesses of L = 1 cm, 40 μm, and ~400 nm, containing cesium atomic vapor, were used. It was shown that with the cell thickness decrease (from centimeters to nanometer thicknesses), many LIF signals are suppressed due to an increase in the number of atomic collisions with the walls, leading to quenching of excited states. By recording the LIF signal, it is also possible to estimate the amount of residual Rb atomic vapor (if any exists) in the Cs-containing cell. The Cs vapor cell can serve as an efficient optical frequency converter filter and has other applications.
A small number of individual Cs atoms was counted by means of two-step photoionization method with a pulsed dye laser. The number of the ion-electron pairs was counted by a secondary electron multiplier as a function of the number of atoms in the interaction which was calculated from vapor pressure data. Although there was a difference between them by a factor of five, detection less than one atom in the interacting region was demonstrated. One can expect to detect 10-3 atoms by this method, by increasing the repetition rate of the laser up to 100 pps.
NOTE: Text or symbols not renderable in plain ASCII are indicated by [...]. Abstract is included in .pdf document. Investigations of optical processes for laser cooled and trapped atoms are described. Fluorescence from Cs atoms in a magneto-optical trap is detected under conditions of very low atomic density. Discrete steps are observed in the fluorescent signal versus time and are associated with the arrival and departure of individual trapped atoms. Histograms of the frequency of occurrence of a given level of fluorescence exhibit a series of uniformly spaced peaks that are attributed to the presence of N = 0, 1, 2 atoms in the trap. In addition, numerical absorption and emission spectra for three-level [...], [...], and V systems under intense radiations are calculated. Absorption spectra for a [...] system is used to explain the probe-wave amplification and absorption spectra recorded for Cs atoms cooled and confined in a magneto-optical trap, in which novel spectral features of narrow frequency widths with single-pass gain exceeding 20% are observed. The consequence of the optical gain is demonstrated to lead to negative radiation pressure, which is investigated together with other mechanical forces in the trap. Various alternative trapping schemes in three-level and two-level atoms are proposed as possible means to compress an atomic sample and demonstrated for a two-level magneto-optical trap.
We report the characteristics of GHz bandwidth amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) from a hot Cs atom vapor cell, where the optical feedback was inhibited. When pumped by an 852 nm laser, both forward and backward ASE output near 894 nm showed a nonlinear increase in its power without a pump power threshold. A continual decrease in spectral width down to 4.7 GHz was experimentally observed as the ASE output power increased. Using the same vapor cell, we injected a 1mW signal to configure a single-pass optical amplifier, and we monitored the forward output both in temporal and spectral domains. We found the signal laser efficiently suppressed the ASE and obtained a large amplification factor over 700 at the pump power of 1.2 W.
Intracavity absorption spectroscopy (ICAS) is a well-established technique for detecting weak absorption signals with ultrahigh sensitivity. Here, we extend this concept to magnetometry using nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. We introduce laser intracavity absorption magnetometry (LICAM), a concept that is in principle applicable to a broader class of optical quantum sensors, including optically pumped magnetometers. Using an electrically driven, edge-emitting diode laser that operates self-sustainably, we show that LICAM enables highly sensitive magnetometers operating under ambient conditions. Near the lasing threshold, we achieve a 475-fold enhancement in optical contrast and a 180-fold improvement in magnetic sensitivity compared with a conventional single-pass geometry. The experimental results are accurately described by a rate-equation model for single-mode diode lasers. From our measurements, we determine a projected shot-noise-limited sensitivity in the pT Hz−1/2\mathrm{pT}\,\mathrm{Hz}^{-1/2}pTHz−1/2 range and simulate that, with realistic device improvements, shot-noise limited sensitivities down to the fT Hz−1/2\mathrm{fT}\,\mathrm{Hz}^{-1/2}fTHz−1/2 scale are attainable.