Photoionization of Laser-Cooled Rb 5D_5/2 Atoms

E. Arimondo, D. Ciampini, F. Fuso +1 more

F. Fuso, D. Ciampini, E. Arimondo +1 more

Stepan Snigirev, Artem A. Golovizin, Gulnara A. Vishnyakova +2 more

We demonstrate the use of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) for population transfer from the ground state to the 5D5/2 level (5 5 5 ) S P D / / / 1 2 3 2 5 2 in laser-cooled 87 Rb atoms and examine the influence of the time delay between laser pulses, pulse height, pulse duration and frequency detuning from resonance on the efficiency of Rb atom excitation to the 5D5/2 level. In our experiments, the pulse duration was varied widely (30 - 200 ns), which allowed us to assess the effect of spontaneous decay on the population of the 5D5/2 level (natural lifetime, 300 ns). We per- formed numerical calculations with allowance for spontaneous decay from the 5P3/2 and 5D5/2 levels and compared the results to experimental data, which allowed the population of the 5D5/2 level to be determined. The maximum population of the 5D5/2 level in the region under excitation was 80 % of the total number of rubidium atoms.

Éric Paradis, B. Barrett, Anantharaman Kumarakrishnan +1 more

We present studies of superfluorescent pulses observed at 420.3 nm from a sample of laser cooled rubidium atoms that are excited to the 5D5/2 excited state by a two-photon transition from the 5S1/2 ground state.

Chen Baozhen.

B. C. Duncan, V. Sánchez-Villicaña, P. L. Gould +1 more

We report on measurements of the cross section for photoionization of Rb atoms in the highly excited ${5D}_{5/2}$ level at wavelengths ranging from 1064 to 532 nm (photoelectron energies of 0.175 to 1.34 eV). We efficiently populate the ${5D}_{5/2}$ level using coherent two-photon excitation of trapped atoms with pulses in the counterintuitive order. The absolute photoionization cross sections are then measured via the increased loss of atoms from the magneto-optical trap when it is illuminated by the photoionizing light. Our results are in good agreement with new calculations based on the valence-electron parametric potential method.