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Optics Letters

Observation of multiphoton-laser-induced collisions

J. C. White

Published May 1, 1981• 33 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The first known observation of a multiphoton-laser-induced inelastic collision is reported. During the collision of Ba and Tl ground-state atoms, two photons are absorbed, resulting in the simultaneous excitation of both atoms to excited states. The collisional absorption was maximized when the photon sum energy was equal to the sum energy of the excited atoms for infinite separation.

DOI
10.1364/ol.6.000242

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The first known observation of a multiphoton-laser-induced inelastic collision is reported. During the collision of Ba and Tl ground-state atoms, two photons are absorbed, resulting in the simultaneous excitation of both atoms to excited states. The collisional absorption was maximized when the photon sum energy was equal to the sum energy of the excited atoms for infinite separation.
Observations are made of dipole-quadrupole laser-induced inelastic collisions occurring during the collision of two Ba atoms. Results for both stimulated-absorption and spontaneous-emission experiments using the same collisional configuration are reported for the first time. In both experiments the interaction maximizes at the $R=\ensuremath{\infty}$ wavelength and has a full-width-at-half-maximum linewidth of \ensuremath{\sim}8 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$. These results bear on the study of the interatomic potentials for colliding atoms and permit the collisional energy transfer to states hitherto inaccessible to dipole-dipole collisions.
We report the observation of spontaneous radiative emission during the collision of two excited Ba atoms. The emission occurs at the sum energy of the excited atoms and is the emission analog of the laser-induced inelastic collision process. We measure a collision cross section for deexcitation by spontaneous radiative emission of 2.6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\ensuremath{-}20}$ cm2{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}cm2.
This is the first reported demonstration of the use of pair-absorption transitions for optically pumping lasers. In a mixture of barium and thallium metal vapors, single-photon absorption of 3867-A laser light caused simultaneous excitation of colliding ground-state atoms to the Ba(6s6p 1P1(o)) and Tl(6p 2P(3/2)(o)) excited states. Excited-state densities of about 10(14) cm(-3) were created, and subsequent laser emission on the Ba(6s6p 1PI(o)) - Ba(6s5d 1D2) atomic transition at 1.5 microm was observed.
By using a multiphoton ionization technique, we observed a laser-induced energy-transfer process of fifth order in Xe–Ar atoms. Through four-photon excitation of the 4f[5/2]J = 2 level of Xe in collision with a ground-state Ar atom and the absorption of one additional photon, the 5s[3/2]J = 1 level of Ar is excited and subsequently ionized. By coincidence the same photon energy required for four-photon excitation of the chosen state in Xe is also adequate for absorption by Ar during the Xe*–Ar collision, thus permitting observation of a fifth-order laser-induced energy transfer in a simple one-color experiment.