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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Application Of Ultrashort Light Pulses For High-Precision Measurements In Atoms

H. Burggraf, W. Kattau, M. Kuckartz, H. Harde

Published Jul 16, 1986• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Measurements of coherent transients resulting from fine and hyperfine structure level splittings in alkaline atoms with frequencies up to 500 GHz have been performed with ultra-short light pulses in combination with a polarization sensitive detection scheme. Further the potentiality of high resolution level splitting measurements with a train of picosecond light pulses from a semiconductor laser is demonstrated.

DOI
10.1117/12.952399

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Measurements of coherent transients resulting from fine and hyperfine structure level splittings in alkaline atoms with frequencies up to 500 GHz have been performed with ultra-short light pulses in combination with a polarization sensitive detection scheme. Further the potentiality of high resolution level splitting measurements with a train of picosecond light pulses from a semiconductor laser is demonstrated.
We have demonstrated the feasibility of Doppler-free two-photon spectroscopy with a train of picosecond standing-wave light pulses from a synchronously pumped mode-locked cw dye laser. The actively controlled mode spectrum provides a means for accurate measurements of large frequency intervals. From a multipulse spectrum of the sodium $3s\ensuremath{-}4d$ transition we have determined a new value of the 4d4d4d fine-structure splitting, 1028\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.4 MHz.
We use a 1 GHz femtosecond laser as a tool to perform coherent spectroscopy in an atomic vapor. The action of the ultrashort pulse train over the various velocity groups or over a selective group of rubidium atoms is probed by a diode laser using velocity-selective or repetition rate spectroscopies. In particular, we show that the 1 GHz frequency separation of the modes in the frequency comb allows distinguishing of the different hyperfine levels within the Doppler broadened profile. The data are in good agreement with numerical and analytical results.
Abstract The paper surveys the techniques of Doppler-free spectroscopy based on the creation and detection of Hertzian coherence in atomic and molecular systems. The preparation of individual atoms in a coherent superposition of states with the use of broadband optical excitation is discussed, with particular reference to excitation by pulsed tunable dye lasers. Time-resolved observations of the fluorescent light emitted by these atoms reveal the interference phenomenon known as quantum beats and enable Landé g-factors, fine and hyperfine splittings of excited levels to be determined. An account of progress in recent experiments with probe-beam monitoring and pulse trains from mode-locked dye lasers completes this review.
The method of Synchronized Quantum Beat Spectroscopy has been improved by introducing the amplitude modulation on the excitation pulse train. By using an amplitude-modulated train of picosecond pulses from a cw mode-locked dye laser, we obtain resonance enhancement of the substate coherence (quantum beat) at f 0 = n f p + n ' f m ( n , n ' : integer, f 0 : sublevel splitting, f p : pulse repetition frequency, f m : modulation frequency), which can be detected by monitoring the optical anisotropy due to the substate coherence. Resonances can be obtained in the frequency domain by sweeping f m . Pressure shift coefficients of the hyperfine splitting in Na 3 2 S 1/2 are measured to be 82, 61, -1 and -47 Hz/Torr for He, N 2 , Ar and Kr, respectively, within an accuracy of ±3 Hz/Torr.