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Physical Review A

Observation of optical nutation in a collinear fast-ion-beam-laser experiment

Anders Wännström, O. Vogel, Arne Arnesen, Reinhold Hallin, Anders Kastberg, CARL NORDLING, Staffan Linnæus

Published Dec 1, 1988• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the first observation of optical nutation in a collinear fast-ion-beam-laser experiment. 35-keV ${\mathrm{Ba}}^{+}$ ions are suddenly tuned into resonance with a strong laser field by post acceleration over a short distance. The degree of excitation as a function of time is monitored by observing the spontaneously emitted light along the ion beam. Oscillations as a function of transition, laser intensity, and laser frequency detuning have been studied. Theoretical curves have been calculated in the density-matrix formalism.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.38.5964

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We report the first observation of optical nutation in a collinear fast-ion-beam-laser experiment. 35-keV Ba+{\mathrm{Ba}}^{+}Ba+ ions are suddenly tuned into resonance with a strong laser field by post acceleration over a short distance. The degree of excitation as a function of time is monitored by observing the spontaneously emitted light along the ion beam. Oscillations as a function of transition, laser intensity, and laser frequency detuning have been studied. Theoretical curves have been calculated in the density-matrix formalism.
Optical nutation in Ba ii has been studied with a rapid Doppler-shifting technique in a cw collinear fast-ion-beam--laser experiment. Time-resolved nutation curves have been recorded as a function of transition, laser irradiance, laser frequency detuning, and laser polarization. Frequency spectra recorded at different, well-specified, times of interaction between the ions and the laser field reveal several interesting effects. Among them is the pronounced influence of the postacceleration potential on the line profiles. Theoretical curves, calculated in the density-matrix formalism, reproduce all the characteristics of the experimental data. Future possibilities of this technique are discussed, e.g., the prospects of determining transition probabilities through the measurements of optical nutation.
The detection of optical resonances by observation of the fluorescence light emitted from a fast atomic beam of Na interacting with a collinear laser beam is limited in sensitivity by optical pumping processes. In the experiment reported here, we take advantage of the optical pumping by using a second collinear laser beam, achieving then a gain in fluorescence signal. The effects of the lasers power and polarization on line shapes have been studied in the single laser excitation case as well as in the two laser beams one.
We have developed a method to measure absolute transition probabilities for ions by recording optical nutation. Ions in an accelerated beam are brought into resonance with a counterpropagating laser beam by a rapid Doppler switch. From the time evolution of the population of the upper level in the resonant transition, we determine the Rabi frequency of the transition. An accurate measurement of the electric field strength then yields the transition probability. We report measurements for five transitions in Ba ii. For three of these transitions our values are more accurate than those of earlier published results.
We show that it is possible to model accurately optical phenomena in intense laser fields by taking into account the intensity distribution over the laser beam. We present an extension of an earlier theoretical model that divides an intense laser beam into concentric regions, each with a Rabi frequency that corresponds to the intensity in that region, and solve a set of coupled optical Bloch equations for the density matrix in each region. Experimentally obtained magneto-optical resonance curves for the ${F}_{g}=2\ensuremath{\longrightarrow}{F}_{e}=1$ transition of the D1{D}_{1}D1​ line of 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb agree very well with the theoretical model up to a laser intensity of around 200 mW/cm2{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}cm2 for a transition whose saturation intensity is around 4.5 mW/cm2{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}cm2. We examine the spatial dependence of the fluorescence intensity in an intense laser beam experimentally and theoretically. We present and discuss the results of an experiment in which a broad, intense pump laser excites the ${F}_{g}=4\ensuremath{\longrightarrow}{F}_{e}=4$ transition of the D2{D}_{2}D2​ line of cesium while a narrow probe beam scans the atoms within the pump beam and excites the D1{D}_{1}D1​ line of cesium, whose fluorescence is recorded as a function of probe beam position. Experimentally obtained spatial profiles of the fluorescence intensity agree qualitatively with the predictions of the model.