We present an experimental study of laser-induced continuum structure in cesium, performed by observing the birefringence and dichroism induced in the atomic medium by a circularly polarized laser embedding the 8s
2S1/2 state into the ionization continuum. The optimization of the sensitivity for the detection of the polarization rotation has allowed a high-accuracy measurement of the resonance profile. A quantitative comparison with theoretical predictions, taking into account the hyperfine structure of atomic levels, shows a clear evidence of a line-broadening effect due to cesium resonant collisions.
Experimental and theoretical results are presented for resonantly enhanced three-photon ionization of cesium atoms in the wavelength range from 830 to 950 nm. The accidental near resonance of the
6p2P23,21 levels at the one-photon energy and the near resonance at the two-photon level with the
6d2D23,25 states gives rise to large ionization signals and interesting anomalies in the relative intensities of the fine-structure levels. "Hybrid resonances" are observed which involve the production of
6p2P21 atoms from molecular cesium. One hybrid resonance involves ionization of the
6p2P21 state via an electric quadrupole transition ($6p ^{2}P_{\frac{1}{2}}\ensuremath{-}7p ^{2}P_{\frac{3}{2}}$). Both experimental and theoretical photoelectron angular distributions are compared for all of the observed resonances except for the
6p2P23 state where the signals were too weak for such a measurement. Agreement between experiment and theory is fair for three-photon ionization via the
6p2P21 state. Comparison of experiment and theory for the case of the
6d2D23,25 states indicates that hyperfine coupling during the laser-pulse duration may be important. The angular distributions for the hybrid resonances show the general behavior predicted by theory but the features appear broadened.
In this letter, the photon-induced charge conversion dynamics of a single Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) center in nanodiamond between two charge states, negative (NV−) and neutral (NV0), is studied by the auto-correlation function. It is observed that the ionization of NV− converts to NV0, which is regarded as the dark state of the NV−, leading to fluorescence intermittency in single NV centers. A new method, based on the auto-correlation calculation of the time-course fluorescence intensity from NV centers, was developed to quantify the transition kinetics and yielded the calculation of transition rates from NV− to NV0 (ionization) and from NV0 to NV− (recharging). Based on our experimental investigation, we found that the NV−-NV0 transition is wavelength-dependent, and more frequent transitions were observed when short-wavelength illumination was used. From the analysis of the auto-correlation curve, it is found that the transition time of NV− to NV0 (ionization) is around 0.1 μs, but the transition time of NV0 to NV− (recharging) is around 20 ms. Power-dependent measurements reveal that the ionization rate increases linearly with the laser power, while the recharging rate has a quadratic increase with the laser power. This difference suggests that the ionization in the NV center is a one-photon process, while the recharging of NV0 to NV− is a two-photon process. This work, which offers theoretical and experimental explanations of the emission property of a single NV center, is expected to help the utilization of the NV center for quantum information science, quantum communication, and quantum bioimaging.