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Japanese Journal of Applied Physics

A Dye Laser Spectrometer Stabilized to a Hyperfine Component of Molecular Iodine for the Magnetooptical Trap of Sodium Atoms

Shinichiro Watanabe, Yasuyuki Aizawa, Atsuo Morinaga

Published Mar 15, 2003• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A dye laser spectrometer, whose sideband frequency was stabilized to a hyperfine component of molecular iodine, was developed for the magnetooptical trap of sodium atoms. The frequency difference between the transition from 3 S 1/2 , F =2 to the 3 P 3/2 , F ' =3 of a sodium atom and the f component of the P (38) line in the 15-2 band of the molecular iodine was measured to be 1047.2±0.3 MHz. The optimum laser frequency for the magnetooptical trap of a sodium atom was obtained.

DOI
10.1143/jjap.42.1462

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A dye laser spectrometer, whose sideband frequency was stabilized to a hyperfine component of molecular iodine, was developed for the magnetooptical trap of sodium atoms. The frequency difference between the transition from 3 S 1/2 , F =2 to the 3 P 3/2 , F ' =3 of a sodium atom and the f component of the P (38) line in the 15-2 band of the molecular iodine was measured to be 1047.2±0.3 MHz. The optimum laser frequency for the magnetooptical trap of a sodium atom was obtained.
The subject of this thesis is the construction of a stabilized cw dye laser and its use with a sodium atomic beam to gain information about the range of validity of certain atomic radiation theories. By lengthening the laser cavity, cooling the dye solution and adding many other refinements the bandwidth of a single mode cw dye laser was reduced to 3 MHz over a period of ten seconds. The laser was designed so that by the insertion of three uncoated glass etalons single mode tunable operation was achieved. The purpose of stabilizing the dye laser was to be able to perform experiments on the hyperfine structure of sodium at high enough resolution and intensity to see any possible differences in the theoretical predictions of Quantum Electrodynamics, the optical Bloch equations, and Neoclassical Radiation Theory. The traditional method of eliminating Doppler shifting was used, that is a well-collimated thermal atomic beam of sodium was constructed. By crossing the atomic and laser beams at right angles the natural linewidth of 10 MHz was observable with only one or two MHz residual broadening. Two types of experiments were carried out: those studying the absorption spectrum, and those studying the emission spectrum. In the first experiments Lorentzian lineshapes were observed for all applied field strengths. This proved that if the Lamb shift of Neoclassical Theory exists at all it is small compared with 10 MHz for the sodium D lines. Further, the sharply peaked spectrum predicted by Neoclassical Theory for a certain field strength was not observed. The width of the absorption at high field strengths was not in good agreement with either theory. In the second type of experiment the observed emission spectra were in qualitative, but not good quantitative, agreement with Quantum Electrodynamics when the effects of nearby levels were included. The results are in disagreement with a two-level neoclassical treatment, and we have been unable thus far to obtain better agreement in more sophisticated treatments. Undoubtedly a better multi-level calculation is required in all theories since our system is not really two-level. In addition, we have found that a factor of 2 increase in the critical intensity calibration would bring QED into reasonable agreement with most of the experiments. However, we have been unable to establish the origin of such a factor. While these results were not sufficient to finally and absolutely settle the controversy regarding Quantum Electrodynamics and Neoclassical Theory they did provide a great deal of new information. For the first time the dynamic Stark effect was observed near resonance in the optical region with data that could be compared to theory. Also, the measurements of the absorption spectrum were the most complete and among the highest resolution measurements yet obtained by direct optical techniques. And finally, a number of of optical pumping phenomena were observed.
We report laser frequency stabilization by the combination of modulation transfer spectroscopy and balanced detection of a relatively weak hyperfine transition of the R(158)25-0 line of molecular iodine ( 127 I 2 ), which is used as a new frequency reference for laser trapping and cooling of 174 Yb on the 1 S 0 − 3 P 1 transition. The atomic cloud is characterized by time-of-flight measurements, and an on-resonance optical depth of up to 47 is obtained. We show laser noise reduction and characterize the short-term laser frequency instability by the Allan deviation of the laser fractional frequency. The minimum measured value is 3.9 ×10 −13 at 0.17 s of averaging time.
Optical manipulation of Ba+ ions is performed mainly by a 493 nm laser for the S1/2−P1/2 transition and a 650 nm laser for the P1/2−D3/2 transition. Because the branching ratio between the 493 and 650 nm transitions of a single Ba+ ion is comparable, stabilization systems of both lasers are equally important for Doppler cooling, sub-Doppler cooling, optical pumping, and state detection. The stabilization system of a 493 nm laser to an absolute Te2 reference has been well established. However, the stabilization of a 650 nm laser to the absolute reference of an atomic or molecular spectrum has not been presented before, to our knowledge. Here, we experimentally obtain the I2 spectrum near 650 nm and provide the experimental connection to the spectrum of Ba+. We present the 20 spectral lines of I2 in the range of 0.9 GHz above the resonance of the P1/2−D3/2 transition. We stabilize the 650 nm laser through the optical cavity to the lowest one among these lines, which is about 350 MHz apart, as the absolute frequency reference. Finally, we measure the frequency differences between these iodine lines and the Ba+ resonance through the fluorescence excitation spectrum with well-resolved dark states, which is in agreement with the theoretical expectation. The presented stabilization scheme enables us to perform precise experiments with Ba+ ions.