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Physical Review A

Saturation of an atomic transition by a phase-diffusing laser field

M. W. Hamilton, Daniel S. Elliott, K. Arnett, Stuart James Smith

Published Jan 1, 1986• 13 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have studied the effect of well-characterized laser frequency fluctuations on the saturation of an atomic resonance in a double optical resonance experiment. The peak-height asymmetry of the observed Autler-Townes signal was reversed at small detunings when the shape of the saturating laser power spectrum was changed from nearly Gaussian to nearly Lorentzian. This behavior agrees qualitatively with theoretical calculations and also with previous observations using lasers without such well-characterized fluctuations.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.33.778

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Journal of Physics B Atomic and Molecular Physics•Sep 28, 1979•86 citations
We have studied the effect of well-characterized laser frequency fluctuations on the saturation of an atomic resonance in a double optical resonance experiment. The peak-height asymmetry of the observed Autler-Townes signal was reversed at small detunings when the shape of the saturating laser power spectrum was changed from nearly Gaussian to nearly Lorentzian. This behavior agrees qualitatively with theoretical calculations and also with previous observations using lasers without such well-characterized fluctuations.
The dependence of the optical Autler-Townes effect on laser field phase fluctuations describable by a two-dimensional Markovian process (phase-diffusion model with a non-Lorentzian line shape) is investigated experimentally in atomic sodium. An intense cw laser tuned to near resonance with the 3S1/2{3\mathrm{S}}_{1/2}3S1/2​(F=2,MF{\mathrm{M}}_{\mathrm{F}}MF​=2)\ensuremath{\rightarrow}3P3/2{3\mathrm{P}}_{3/2}3P3/2​(F=3,MF{\mathrm{M}}_{\mathrm{F}}MF​=3) transition was frequency modulated to generate phase fluctuations with the desired characteristics. A weak probe laser coupling to the 4D5/2{D}_{5/2}D5/2​(F=4, MF{M}_{F}MF​=4) state was used to obtain the double-peaked optical Autler-Townes absorption profiles in order to investigate their dependencies on band shape, bandwidth, intensity, and detuning of the intense fluctuating laser field. Reversals of the peak-height asymmetry and reversion to normal asymmetry with increased detuning were observed and measured. Quantitative studies of the spectral widths and splittings of the peaks are also reported. Measured absorption profiles are in excellent agreement with calculations based on previous theoretical work.
The interaction of an atomic system with a laser having phase fluctuations is studied within the phase-diffusion model, with the finite correlation time of the time derivative of the phase taken into account. This finite correlation time introduces a line shape which is Lorentzian near the center and falls off faster than the Lorentzian at its wings. The authors apply this model to calculate the spectrum of double optical resonance for excitation by a laser having this non-Lorentzian line shape. It is observed that the reversed peak asymmetry reverts to normal far off resonance owing to the cutoff of the laser spectrum, in agreement with recent experiments. Numerical results are presented.
We report the observation of the Autler-Townes absorption spectrum of a two-level atom in a 100% amplitude-modulated optical field. Two frequency-stabilized dye lasers interact with a three-level atomic cascade system. One of the two lasers is used to create the bichromatic field that saturates the lower transition, while the second one is tuned in the frequency between the second and third levels to probe the absorption line shape. We investigate the dependence of the spectrum on the detuning between the average frequency of the bichromatic field and the lower atomic resonance. In order to study the effects of saturation, for every value of the detuning we take a series of data for different intensity levels of the bichromatic field. There is very good agreement between theory and experiment and profound differences from the conventional Autler-Townes results with a monochromatic pump field. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
We have measured the variance in fluorescence intensity and the spectrum of those fluctuations for two-level atoms in a phase-diffusing laser field. We compare our results with recent theoretical predictions that have been extended to include the effects of Doppler broadening and spatial variation of the laser intensity. Our study includes the effects of laser power, bandwidth, and shape (Lorentzian and non-Lorentzian) of the laser spectrum. At lower laser intensities, our measured variances versus detuning are in quantitative agreement with the theoretical predictions. At intensities above saturation, the variance is sensitive to inhomogeneities in the distribution of laser intensity in the interaction region, and only qualitative agreement is achieved. Asymmetries in the variance versus detuning resulting from correlated amplitude and phase noise have been observed. Spectra of the phase-noise-induced fluorescence-intensity fluctuations are shown to contain contributions from transients excited by the phase noise and are more sensitive to artifacts in the noise modulation process than the intensity spectrum of the laser field itself.
In this paper we describe an experimental investigation of a zero- field level crossing resonance in the observed fluorescence at 555.6 nm resulting from excitation of the /sup 1/S/sub O/ ..-->.. /sup 3/P/sub 1/ transition in transition in Yb/sup 174/ by a linearly polarized laser field. The essential new feature of this investigation is the use of an optical field for which the phase coherence is well-characterized and variable over a wide range. We have developed, and apply here, experimental techniques for synthesizing constant amplitude laser fields with phase/frequency fluctuations which follow Gaussian (normal) statistics and which have spectral dependences which can be varied over a range from nearly Lorentzian to nearly Gaussian profiles. These synthesized fields correspond, to a good approximation, to the so-called phase-diffusion fields described in theoretical studies of the ac Stark effect with Lorentzian and non-Lorentzian laser line shapes, and have been applied previously in several related experimental investigations. 13 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.
The effect of a cut off of the Lorentzian laser lineshape (as predicted by the phase-diffusion model of ideal laser theory) on the laser-atom interaction is investigated. The damping terms in the averaged density matrix equation of the atom, arising from the finite laser bandwidth are shown to be multiplied by a detuning-dependent cut-off. For detunings of the laser well within the Lorentzian part of the spectrum, the authors recover the previously derived results, while these damping terms are seen to drop out for detuning larger than the cut-off. Within their model, therefore, a laser with a lineshape falling faster than a Lorentzian, and for large detunings, appears monochromatic to the atom. In particular, the authors obtain qualitative agreement with recent experiments in which the reversed peak asymmetry in the doublet of double optical resonance persists only within a certain range of detuning from resonance.