Cw velocity selection by dye laser optical pumping

Rudolf T. Schieder, HERBERT WALTHER

J. P. C. Kroon, H. A. J. Senhorst, Herman C. W. Beijerinck +2 more

We report the measurement of Rabi oscillations in the optical pumping of a beam of metastable neon atoms in a three-level system with a cw dye laser. The laser beam is focused on the atomic beam, resulting in an interaction time with the laser beam of the order of the spontaneous lifetime of the induced transition. The Rabi oscillations are measured by a velocity-resolved analysis of the optically pumped metastable atoms. Adiabatic following is observed when the atoms cross the laser beam outside the waist, induced by the Doppler shifts due to the curvature of the wave fronts.

R. Short, Rajarshi Roy, L. Mandeļ

The effect of changing the velocity of dye flow on the behavior of a cw dye laser is investigated by photon counting measurements. The results strongly suggest that changing the velocity over the range 10–13 m/sec merely changes the pump parameter, but leaves the other laser characteristics essentially unaltered. The average light intensity is found to be a linear function of flow velocity.

Claude N. Cohen-Tannoudji

Galina A. Nemova

Jack T. Cusma, L. W. Anderson

A highly polarized $^{23}\mathrm{Na}$ atomic beam is produced by optical pumping with the use of either a multimode cw dye laser or a single-mode ring dye laser followed by a double-passed acousto-optic modulator. Electron-spin polarizations of 0.72 to 0.90 are obtained.