Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE
Spectrum of resonance fluorescence excited by an evanescent wave at a gas-solid interface
Vladimir G Bordo
Abstract
We present the results of a theoretical investigation of the fluorescence spectrum from the gas of two-level atoms strongly driven by an evanescent wave (EW). The mean time-of-flight of atoms across the EW is supposed to be less than the relaxation times in the gas volume. Assuming the atomic absorption line to be Doppler-broadened we analyze two specific cases: (1) the atoms over the whole Doppler contour are excited by the EW in the adiabatic-following regime and (2) the EW 'burns out the hole' inside the absorption line. In case (1) in addition to the well- known Mollow triplet the line at the atomic transition frequency appears due to the transient behavior of the atoms departing the surface. In case (2) the spectrum has a sub-Doppler structure sensitive to the type of the atom-surface scattering (diffuse, specular or inelastic). In both cases the spectrum depends on the sticking probability and phases of the scattering in the ground and excited states.