Mixing of polarization spectroscpoy with saturation spectroscopy

Shigeru Nakayama

H.‐H. Ritze, V. Stert, E. Meisel

Shigeru NAKAYAMA

The relative intensities of the Doppler-free signals in the transition from polarized and dispersive signals to absorptive signals of the Na D1 line are calculated theoretically from the approximation of a single cycle of opticalpumping in a four-level system. The transition from polarized signals to saturated signals is made by varying the angle of an analyzer. Since the signal in polarization spectroscopy is mixed with the signal in saturation spectroscopy during the transition, spurious signals due to saturation and polarization effects should be taken into account in the signal analysis of polarization and saturation spectroscopies, respectively. Both theories, of polarization spectroscopy and saturation spectroscopy are unified and applied to the Doppler-free signals of the Na D1 line. The results obtained from the four-level optical pumping theory which mixes polarization spectroscopy with saturation spectroscopy are in good agreement with experimental reports.

Pierre Meystre, Murray Sargent

Thomas A. Reichardt, Robert P. Lucht

The physics of the degenerate four-wave mixing process for resonant transitions between two degenerate energy levels is investigated by direct numerical integration of the time-dependent density matrix equations. The Zeeman structure of the upper and lower energy levels is included in a multistate formulation of the density matrix equations. The inclusion of the Zeeman structure enables the investigation of the degenerate four-wave mixing process for different polarization configurations of the forward pump, backward pump, and probe beams. Saturation curves and lineshapes are calculated for different polarization configurations and for numerous low-J transitions. At low laser intensity, the results of our calculations are in excellent agreement with perturbation theory in terms of the relative intensities of the degenerate four-wave mixing signal for linear polarization configurations. As the laser intensity increases and the resonance starts to saturate, we find in general that the relative degenerate four-wave mixing reflectivity increases for the crossed polarization configurations compared to the parallel polarization configuration because the saturation intensity is higher. However, for some resonance transitions, some of the crossed polarization configurations saturate at lower laser intensities than the parallel polarization configuration, even though the reflectivity for these crossed polarization configurations is much lower than for the parallel polarization configuration in the perturbative intensity limit. This result is explained in terms of the coupling of the various Zeeman states during the degenerate four-wave mixing interaction for specific polarization configurations. The effect of saturation on the resonance line shapes for the different polarization configurations is also investigated. Finally, a limited number of calculations are performed for resonances that are Doppler broadened as well as collision broadened. The effect of saturation on the reflectivity of the crossed polarization configurations compared to the parallel polarization configuration is even more significant for resonances with comparable Doppler and collisional broadening.

Vladilen S Letokhov