Laser Spectroscopy inside Inhomogeneously Broadened Lines

V. D. Kotsubanov, Yu. V. Naboĭkin, A. M. Ratner +1 more

Vladilen S Letokhov, V. P. Chebotaev

The review deals with resonance phenomena resulting from saturation of low-pressure-gas absorption lines by a coherent optical field, when the spectral lines are inhomogeneously broadened by the Doppler effect. Principal attention is paid to narrow resonances of width much smaller than the Doppler widths, which are produced upon saturation of the absorption by light waves under various experimental conditions (inside and outside the laser resonator, in traveling and standing waves, in spatially separated waves, etc.), owing to different effects (absorption saturation, mode interaction in the laser). Each of the phenomena is considered from both the theoretical and the experimental points of view. The phenomena considered serve as a basis of a new branch of optical spectroscopy, namely nonlinear laser spectroscopy of ultrahigh resolution.

Dmitry V. Kolomoitsev, S. Yu. Nikitin

M. N. Sapozhnikov

Abstract A history of the development of selective laser spectroscopy is presented, beginning with a pioneering work by Yu. V. Denisov and V. A. Kizel in 1967, who were the first to demonstrate the possibility of removing the inhomogeneous broadening of luminescence spectra of impurity ions in glasses upon monochromatic resonance excitation. Selective excitation of optical centers can be achieved due to existence of zero-phonon transitions corresponding to narrow homogeneous zero-phonon lines in the spectra of impurity centers in solids, which are hidden in broad inhomogeneous optical bands upon usual nonselective excitation. The fundamentals of zero-phonon transition spectroscopy are considered and the mechanism of removing the inhomogeneous broadening of optical spectra of ions and molecules in crystals and amorphous solids under selective laser excitation of luminescence and persistent hole burning in absorption spectra is presented in detail. Various applications of selective laser spectroscopy for fundamental and applied studies are discussed.

Wolfgang Demtröder

Bernhard Dick, Robin M. Hochstrasser

A method is introduced to calculate for a model set of molecular levels the spectral line shapes expected for a variety of conventional laser experiments including absorption, hole burning, fluorescence line narrowing, and Raman scattering. The method allows the incident laser field to have arbitrary intensity. Furthermore, the effects of model Gaussian or Lorenzian inhomogeneous distributions are readily incorporated. Earlier results for a two-level system are easily obtained and new results are presented for inhomogeneously broadened two and three level systems, and for the effects of pure dephasing on the strong field spectra. In particular we have described the differences between fluorescence and Raman in strong fields, and the effect of strong fields on the spontaneous emission of inhomogeneously broadened transitions. Some predictions are made regarding line narrowing experiments in the strong-field limit.