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Physical Review Letters

Laser Polarization Transients to Study Nonclassical Features of Magnetic Quantum-State Scattering in Yb174

A. P. Ghosh, C. D. Nabors, M. A. Attili, John E. Thomas, Michael S. Feld

Published Oct 1, 1984• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present experiments which study velocity-changing collisions for $^{174}\mathrm{Yb}$ $^{3}P_{1}$ atomic multipoles. New laser polarization-rotation-transient techniques are used to select anisotropic moments for which the velocity-changing collision kernel is diagonal. The results are compared to those obtained for the collisional evolution of the state populations, and demonstrate that wave mechanical effects play an important role in anisotropic-moment scattering.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.53.1333

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We report studies of 174Yb^{174}\mathrm{Yb}174Yb 3P1^{3}P_{1}3P1​-orientation velocity-changing kernels with resolution sufficient to observe both classical and wave mechanical features. The measurements employ photon-echo techniques in which the echo intensity depends on the square of an isolated J=1J=1J=1 multipole moment for which the velocity-changing kernel is diagonal.
We present the results of an experiment designed to probe the collision-induced relaxation of excited-state Yb Zeeman coherences. Our experiment is sensitive not only to the depolarization-type relaxation mechanisms often observed in optical-pumping experiments, but also to the effects of collisionally induced velocity changes. Our measurements were performed in the 6s6p 3{\mathrm{}}^{3}3P1{P}_{1}P1​ excited state of the even (I=0) isotopes of gas-phase atomic Yb by means of a trilevel photon-echo technique. Depolarization rates, velocity-change spectra, and total scattering cross sections of Yb-He (Yb-Ar) collisions were measured (deduced). Both rank-1 and rank-2 spherical tensor components of the 3P1^{3}\mathrm{P}_{1}3P1​ state play a role in our experiment, and our results represent averages of potentially different relaxation rates attributable to these quantities. Comparison of our results with rank-0 results obtained elsewhere reveals interesting similarities as well as differences.
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