The feasibility of a novel technique for efficient and selective population transfer from a thermally populated level 1 via an intermediate state 2 to level 3 is experimentally demonstrated. It is shown for sodium dimers that the process of on- or near-resonance stimulated Raman scattering with only partially overlapping laser beams is, in particular, useful for the selective population of high vibrational levels of particles in a molecular beam. This is achieved when the interaction with the Stokes laser, coupling levels 2 and 3, begins earlier than the interaction with the pump laser. The phenomenon, which is closely related to the formation of ‘‘trapped states,’’ is quantitatively explained using the basis of eigenstates of molecules strongly coupled to the radiation fields. The similarity and difference to related techniques such as rapid adiabatic passage phenomena in two-level systems, off-resonant stimulated Raman scattering, or stimulated emission pumping is briefly discussed.
Techniques for population transfer are needed to gain more complete insight into the collision dynamics of thermally unpopulated levels, e.g. highly vibrationally excited states of molecules. Very promising new techniques are now becoming available. They invoke coherence properties of the radiation field and rely on the phenomena of adiabatic following. In this presentation, I will discuss one of them, the STIRAP method, which induces efficient and highly selective flow of population from an initially populated level 1 to a final level 3. These levels are coupled by a pump and a Stokes laser, with both laser frequencies tuned to resonance with an intermediate level 2. Despite the resonance, spontaneous emission, which may populate levels other than level 3, is eliminated. The method can be implemented with cw as well as with pulsed lasers. First results from a study of the effect of initial vibrational excitation of a molecule on a chemical reaction will be presented. It will also be shown how this technique allows the orientation of electronic or molecular angular moments. The prospects of using this technique for efficient transfer of photon momenta to an atom may be mentioned.
We have theoretically investigated the vibrational population transfer in the presence of manifolds of rotational levels in a model 15-level
Li2 molecular system by stimulated Raman adiabatic passage with intense unchirped femtosecond laser pulses. We have considered five rotational levels
Jg=0,2,…,8 associated with the initial vibrational level
vg=0 of the ground electronic state $X\text{ }{^{1}\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{g}^{+}$, five rotational levels
Ji=1,3,…,9 associated with the vibrational level
vi=1 of the intermediate excited electronic state $A\text{ }{^{1}\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{u}^{+}$, and five rotational levels
Jf=0,2,…,8 associated with the final target vibrational levels
vf=1,2 of the $X\text{ }{^{1}\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{g}^{+}$ state of the
Li2 alkali dimer. The pump and Stokes laser pulses are taken to have the same temporal (Gaussian) shapes, pulse widths, and linear parallel polarizations. The laser wavelengths are in the (visible) range of 700--740 nm. The (peak) intensities of the pulses are of the order of $1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{12}--2.5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{13}\text{ }\text{W}/{\text{cm}}^{2}$ and the pulse widths are of the order of 20--50 fs. We have solved the 15 coupled time-dependent Schr\"odinger equations to study the population transfer to the target-excited vibrational levels. We have observed that, even with ``mushrooming'' of closely spaced rotational levels, efficient and selective population transfer to excited vibrational levels in
Li2 alkali dimer can be achieved for counterintuitive pulse sequence by controlling the pump and Stokes laser parameters. We have endeavored to explain the results within the framework of adiabatic picture.