Physical Review A
Composite level approach to the hyperfine structure of the sodiumD1 transition
Rajan S. Gurjar, K. K. Sharma
Abstract
Population changes among the hyperfine levels of the sodium D1 transition, created by a weakly saturating narrow-band pump, are detected by a counterpropagating probe in a 10-cm-long cell containing sodium vapor without any buffer gas. All Lamb dips and cross over resonances with linewidths approaching natural widths are clearly resolved. We have applied a five composite level model to interpret the observed probe absorption. The rate equations were solved analytically. The model predicts specific relationships between the frequency integrated probe absorption coefficient of crossover and Lamb dip resonances. We find excellent agreement in the case of crossover resonances that involve a single ground-state hyperfine level. The agreement is not so good for crossover resonances for which both ground hyperfine levels participate. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.