AIP conference proceedings
Attosecond beats in sodium vapor
D. DeBeer, Eric W. Usadi, Sven R. Hartmann
Abstract
Transient time‐delayed four‐wave mixing (TDFWM) experiments have been performed on the Na D doublet and modulations of 980 attoseconds have been observed. This period corresponds to the sum frequency of the two Na D lines. The experiments were performed using 7 ns pulses of light with frequency components at each of the D‐line transitions. The effects of superposition‐state modulations are observed in the integrated TDFWM signal as a function of the time delay. As the time delay is varied, the lowest diffraction order mixing signal is modulated. Higher diffraction order mixing signals contain modulation components at integral multiples of the beat frequency.