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Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters

Splitting of the Selective Reflection Spectrum Due to the Resonance Optical Saturation of a Dipole-Broadened Atomic Transition

Vladimir A. Sautenkov, Sergey A. Saakyan, Andrey A. Bobrov, Boris B. Zelener

Published Sep 1, 2025• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

A nonlinear selective reflection from the boundary between a transparent dielectric and dense Rb vapor has been investigated, where the dipole broadening of the 5 S 1/2 –5 P 3/2 working transition is significantly larger than the contribution of the Doppler width. A tunable probe laser and a pump laser with a fixed frequency have been used in the experiment. At a high intensity of pump radiation, a dip has appeared in the reflection spectrum, which splits the spectrum into two symmetric resonances. The splitting value is twice the Rabi frequency. The observation of a narrow structure corresponding to the dressed atomic states opens up additional possibilities for the study of many-particle interactions.

DOI
10.1134/s0021364025607961

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A nonlinear selective reflection from the boundary between a transparent dielectric and dense Rb vapor has been investigated, where the dipole broadening of the 5 S 1/2 –5 P 3/2 working transition is significantly larger than the contribution of the Doppler width. A tunable probe laser and a pump laser with a fixed frequency have been used in the experiment. At a high intensity of pump radiation, a dip has appeared in the reflection spectrum, which splits the spectrum into two symmetric resonances. The splitting value is twice the Rabi frequency. The observation of a narrow structure corresponding to the dressed atomic states opens up additional possibilities for the study of many-particle interactions.
The dipole–dipole broadening of the spectrum of the selective reflection of intense resonance light from the interface between a transparent dielectric and a gas of the natural mixture of Rb isotopes has been studied experimentally. The case of a high gas density where the Doppler broadening can be neglected has been investigated. It has been shown that dipole–dipole broadening is reduced with increasing the number density of excited atoms. When the laser beam intensity is much higher than the saturation intensity of a resonance transition, a significant broadening due to the very high laser beam intensity has not been observed in the reflection spectrum from the transparent dielectric/gas interface. The observed intensity dependence of the spectral width has been explained by the quenching collisions of the excited atoms with the interface.
We have investigated the nonlinear selective reflection of a laser beam (λ = 780 nm) from a high density rubidium vapor. The laser frequency was tuned over atomic transitions and coherent optical excitation of the atomic vapor was realized. The observed narrowing of reflection spectral profile is associated with a competition of two nonlinear processes: optical field induced coherent broadening (Rabi broadening) and optical saturation induced decreasing of dipole–dipole broadening of atomic transitions. For more complete understanding the spectral narrowing we suggest to perform a set of new experiments.
Nonlinear selective reflection from the interface YAG window-high density rubidium vapor in the high-temperature cell is studied at the transition 5S1/2_{1/2}1/2​-5P3/2_{3/2}3/2​. In the experiment tunable pump and probe lasers are used. The selective reflection spectra for the laser probe beam are investigated at four different rubidium atomic densities and five different pump beam intensities. The estimated dipole-dipole interaction-induced line broadening varies from 13.213.213.2 to 39.639.639.6 GHz, the measured pumped intensities change from 1.21.21.2 to 8.88.88.8 kW⋅\cdot⋅cm−2^{-2}−2. Growth of the pump intensity causes reduction of the magnitude and the width of the recorded selective reflection resonance. We suggest developing all-optical modulators on the basis of nonlinear selective reflection.
Abstract Coherent narrow resonances in a homogeneously broadened contour of selective reflection from the interface between a cell window and high-density atomic rubidium vapor, where the dipole broadening greatly exceeds the Doppler width of the unresolved components of rubidium D2 line, are discussed. The formation of coherent resonances is caused by the coherent scattering of probe and pump optical fields from the oscillations of populations of the ground and excited states of atoms at the beat frequency. The width of each resonance depends on the population difference decay rate. Within a simple model conditions are found for observing resonances with a Lorentzian spectral profile. The experimentally recorded coherent resonances are described by a Lorentz function with fitting parameters in the form of amplitude, width, and spectral baseline. In the limit of zero optical saturation the measured half-width of a coherent resonance (HWHM) γres/2π is about 52 MHz, which greatly exceeds the radiative decay rate of the rubidium excited state 5P3/2.
Abstract The effect of selective reflection (SR) of laser radiation from the boundary of 87 Rb D 2 -line atomic vapors and a dielectric window was studied using a nanocell (NC) with a vapor column thickness of ~300 nm. The formation of an SR with a spectral width of 25 MHz, located on atomic transitions, is demonstrated. This is a record narrowing of the 670 MHz Doppler width by a factor of 27 using single-pass geometry. The SR signal reaches several percent of the intensity of its forming radiation, and the SR amplitude’s linear dependence is maintained up to 100 mW/cm 2 , which is almost two orders of magnitude greater than the saturation intensity of optical processes when using centimeter-long cells with atomic vapors. Such a high saturation intensity value is achieved by using the nanocell.
We study dependence of dipole-dipole interaction in dense Rb vapour on optical excitation. We measure the dipole-dipole contribution to the selective reflection spectrum of D2 line. Optical excitation is created by intense laser beam, which depletes the 5S1/2 population and decreases the dipole-dipole interaction, narrowing the observed spectrum. The limit of the dipole-dipole interaction change is determined by the optical saturation of the D2 transition and corresponds to the 5S1/2 population approximately equal to 1/3.