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Physics Experimentation

Measurement and analysis of Rb-D_2 saturated absorption

Lian-Lian Zhang

Published Jan 1, 2008• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Two beams generated by a semiconductor laser propagate in opposite directions in the experiment. The weak laser beam serves as probe light, and the other strong as pump light. They pass through the rubidium cell together. After eliminating the Doppler background, the hype-fine saturated absorption spectrum of Rb-D2 line is observed. The influence of the pump power and the probe power on saturated absorption can be observed while changing the temperature of rubidium cell.

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Two beams generated by a semiconductor laser propagate in opposite directions in the experiment. The weak laser beam serves as probe light, and the other strong as pump light. They pass through the rubidium cell together. After eliminating the Doppler background, the hype-fine saturated absorption spectrum of Rb-D2 line is observed. The influence of the pump power and the probe power on saturated absorption can be observed while changing the temperature of rubidium cell.
The goal of this experiment was to measure the hyperfine energy splittings of the ground to first excited state transitions in rubidium using saturated absorption spectroscopy. Using this technique, we measured these transition energy spectra by taking the difference of two photodiode outputs due to multiple beams of a single laser scanned over a range of frequencies and shone through a cell of Rb vapor. When the laser frequency was resonant with an atomic transition, photons of those frequencies were absorbed, leaving a dip in intensity of the beam measured at the photodiode. One of the two laser beams had its excitations saturated by a more intense, counter-propagating pump beam from the same laser. The pump beam saturated the absorption of the velocity equal zero atoms that the counter-propagating probe beam could have also interacted with due to no Doppler shift. At these frequencies the probe beam experienced less absorption that was measured by a photodiode. The photodiode output was calibrated to the change in frequency of the scanned laser using a Fabry-Pérot interferometer. The output of this interferometer served as a reference for how the laser frequency changed. Final results for the 87Rb F=1 spectrum accounted for the largest error with a maximum of 12.2% deviation from accepted energy spacing values due in part to systematic error. Other spectra measurements were in better agreement, possessing error ranging from 2.1% to 10.1% and some agreeing with accepted values to within our uncertainty.
Abstract. We study the Doppler-broadened absorption of a weak monochromatic probe beam in a thermal rubidium vapour cell on the D lines. A detailed model of the susceptibility is developed which takes into account the absolute linestrengths of the allowed electric dipole transitions and the motion of the atoms parallel to the probe beam. All transitions from both hyperfine levels of the ground term of both isotopes are incorporated. The absorption and refractive index as a function of frequency are expressed in terms of the complementary error function. The absolute absorption profiles are compared with experiment, and are found to be in excellent agreement provided a sufficiently weak probe beam with an intensity under one thousandth of the saturation intensity is used. The importance of hyperfine pumping for open transitions is discussed in the context of achieving the weak-probe limit. Theory and experiment show excellent agreement, with an rms error better than 0.2 % for the D2 line at 16.5 ◦ C. PACS numbers: 32.70.-n, 32.70.Fw, 42.62.FiAbsolute Rb absorption 2 1.
In this paper the saturation spectra of rubidium vapour at room temperature, obtained with overlapped co-propagating laser beams, were examined. Unlike the standard saturation spectroscopy, here the transmission of the pump laser beam was detected. The pump laser was locked to an atomic transition of the D2 line, while the probe laser frequency was scanned in a wide frequency range. The pump and probe beams had approximately the same intensities; thus the probe laser can saturate transitions and contribute to optical pumping. This, together with Doppler broadening, leads to rich pump transmission spectra, with many lines appearing due to the interaction of lasers with atoms in different velocity groups. The advantages of this method are well-resolved structures and appearance of spectral lines on a flat, Doppler-free background. Agreement between experimental and theoretical results shows the usefulness of this simple model, based on the rate equations, for identification of lines and determination of relative contribution to the observed line intensity from atoms with different velocities. Theoretical spectra are a useful tool for the calibration of experimental spectra obtained by a nonlinear dependence of the laser frequency on the voltage applied to the piezo used for the laser diode frequency scanning.
We propose and demonstrate pump-probe spectroscopy of rubidium absorption that reveals the sub-Doppler hyperfine structure of the ${}^{5}{\mathrm{S}}_{1/2}\ensuremath{\leftrightarrow}{}^{5}{\mathrm{P}}_{3/2}$ (D2{\mathrm{D}}_{2}D2​) transitions. The counterpropagating pump and probe lasers are independently tunable in frequency, with the probe operating at the single-photon level. The two-dimensional spectrum measured as the laser frequencies are scanned shows fluorescence, Doppler-broadened absorption dips, and sub-Doppler features. The detuning between the pump and probe lasers allows compensation of the Doppler shift for all atomic velocities in the room-temperature vapor, meaning we observe sub-Doppler features for all atoms in the beam. We detail a theoretical model of the system that incorporates fluorescence, saturation effects, and optical pumping and compare this with the measured spectrum, finding a mean absolute percentage error of 3.11%. This high level of agreement allows us to extract the number density and temperature of the Rb\mathrm{Rb}Rb vapor from the two-dimensional spectrum. In the future this technique could be used as an atomic frequency standard for calibrating and characterising a single-photon or low-light-level source.
We study the Doppler-broadened absorption of a weak monochromatic probe beam in a thermal rubidium vapour cell on the D lines. A detailed model of the susceptibility is developed which takes into account the absolute linestrengths of the allowed electric dipole transitions and the motion of the atoms parallel to the probe beam. All transitions from both hyperfine levels of the ground term of both isotopes are incorporated. The absorption and refractive index as a function of frequency are expressed in terms of the complementary error function. The absolute absorption profiles are compared with experiment, and are found to be in excellent agreement provided a sufficiently weak probe beam with an intensity under one thousandth of the saturation intensity is used. The importance of hyperfine pumping for open transitions is discussed in the context of achieving the weak-probe limit. Theory and experiment show excellent agreement, with an rms error better than 0.2% for the D2 line at 16.5 degrees C.
This chapter considers the radiation confined in a one dimensional cavity with two reflecting mirrors at the two ends of the cell of length. The moving atoms will interact with the two oppositely moving waves and the interaction is expected to lead to a hole by each wave depending on the detuning. Lamb dip or saturation absorption spectroscopy experiments on rubidium (Rb) are carried out with low power frequency tunable diode lasers. The laser frequency depends on laser temperature and laser current. The coarse tuning of the laser is provided by the temperature and current control. In the case of saturation absorption spectroscopy the laser radiation from the external cavity diode laser is split into two fractions by a beam splitter. The reflected part is sent to the Rb cell and constitutes the forward moving probe beam. The other fraction is transmitted through the beam splitter.