Collisional depolarization of the atomic Cs-6s2S1/2→10s2S1/2 transition with argon buffer gas
We studied the effect of depolarization of the atomic cesium in the 6p 2 P 3/2 level by using two-photon two-color nano-second pulse lasers in collision with krypton buffer gas at various pressures.We used linearly polarized dye lasers at 852.112 nm and at 603.409 nm wavelengths for the 6s 2 S 1/2 → 6p 2 P 3/2 → 10s 2 S 1/2 transition.Excitation of the ground state cesium atoms by linearly polarized light produces an electric quadrupole moment in the excited state.The polarization degree of the emission spectra was measured and was used to calculate the alignment (electric quadrupole moment) in the 6p 2 P 3/2 state.Further,the collisional depolarization effect on the linear polarization was measured at various buffer gas pressures from the spectra and it showed a strong pressure dependence on the polarization spectrum.Finally, we extracted the collisional depolarization cross-section of the 6p 2 P 3/2 Cs atoms in collision with Kr from the measured linear polarization spectrum.
An experimental investigation of the Cs 6s 2S1/2→6p 2P3/2→10s 2S1/2 double-resonance two-photon polar-ization spectrum has been made. In the investigation, a linear polarization degree was measured to extract the alignment depolarization cross section in the cesium 6p 2P3/2 level due to collisions between ground-level argon and excited 6p 2P3/2 cesium atoms over the Zeeman coherences. The spectra show strong depolarization of the Cs 6p 2P3/2 level. The measured alignment depolarization cross section value of 186 58 Å2 is in good agreement with the experiment and theoretical predictions. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.73.042713 PACS numbers: 32.80.t, 32.70.n I.