Narrow linewidth two-color polarization spectroscopy due to the atomic coherence effect in a ladder-type atomic system

An experimental investigation of two-color polarization spectroscopy(TCPS) is presented based on the cesium 6 S_(1/2)– 6P_(3/2)– 8S_(1/2)(852.3 nm + 794.6 nm) ladder-type system in a room-temperature vapor cell. The dependency of line shapes of TCPS on the power of a 852.3 nm pump and a 794.6 nm probe laser is measured in detail, and we confirm that the linewidth of TCPS in a counter-propagating configuration between the pump and probe laser beams is obviously narrower than that of a co-propagating configuration, due to the atomic coherence effect. It is helpful for laser stabilization of the excited state transition using TCPS without frequency modulation.     

Two-photon polarization spectroscopy applied for quantitative measurements of atomic hydrogen in atmospheric pressure flames

Two-photon – polarization spectroscopy has been applied for the first time to determine absolute number densities and kinetic temperatures of atomic hydrogen via the 1 S–2 Stransition in flames at atmospheric pressure. This sensitive laser spectroscopic technique, so far mainly developed and applied for quantitative plasma diagnostics, is also well suited for real combustion processes, because the signal is directly related to the two-photon absorption itself and therefore not limited by quenching or photo-ionization. It can be applied with high spatial and temporal resolution in a wide range of pressure and temperature. Furthermore, a well-established calibration procedure allows for a precise determination of the absolute ground-state density of atomic hydrogen. The measurements also demonstrate that a certain potential of this method comes especially into its own in conjunction with laser radiation of highest spectral quality, i.e. pulsed single-longitudinal mode UV radiation.     

Control of atomic collisions by laser polarization

Atomic collision pairs in a light field form a microscopic interferometer. The light acts as the beam splitter and controls at the same time the amplitudes and phases of the interfering waves. We demonstrate the complete tunability using linear and elliptic polarization.     

Low phase noise diode laser oscillator for 1S-2S spectroscopy in atomic hydrogen

We report on a low-noise diode laser oscillator at 972?nm actively stabilized to an ultrastable vibrationally and thermally compensated reference cavity. To increase the fraction of laser power in the carrier we designed a 20?cm long external cavity diode laser with an intracavity electro-optical modulator. The fractional power in the carrier reaches 99.9%, which corresponds to an rms phase noise of φ(rms)2=1?mrad2 in 10?MHz bandwidth. Using this oscillator, we recorded 1S-2S spectra in atomic hydrogen and have not observed any significant loss of the excitation efficiency due to phase noise multiplication in the three consecutive two-photon processes.     

Development of an optical parametric generator with pulsed dye amplification for high-resolution laser spectroscopy

An injection-seeded optical parametric generator (OPG), coupled with three pulsed dye amplification (PDA) stages, was shown to produce tunable, narrow linewidth laser radiation. The OPG was composed of a pair of beta barium borate (β-BBO) crystals and pumped by the third harmonic (355 nm) output of a seeded Nd:YAG laser. The OPG was injection-seeded at the idler wavelength (824 nm) using an external cavity diode laser (ECDL) with a mode-hop-free tuning range of 20 GHz. Using the PDA stages, the OPG output signal (624 nm) was amplified to 19 mJ/pulse, while maintaining a spectral linewidth of approximately 160 MHz at full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) which was within a factor of 2 of the Fourier limit. A system of lenses and apertures was used to minimize amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in the PDA stages. Using the OPG/PDA system, two-photon laser-induced fluorescence measurements of atomic oxygen were performed by sum-frequency-mixing the 624-nm beam with the third harmonic output of the seeded Nd:YAG laser to generate approximately 1 mJ/pulse of ultraviolet radiation near 226 nm. Voigt line shapes were found to be in good agreement with oxygen atom spectra in atmospheric-pressure, laminar, counter-flow flames; the magnitude of Doppler and collisional broadening was approximately the same. The measured O-atom concentration profile was found to compare well with that calculated using an opposed-flow flame code.     

Dependence of above-threshold ionization spectrum on polarization directions of two-color laser fields

Using the frequency-domain theory, we investigate the above-threshold ionization(ATI) process of an atom in twocolor laser fields. When both photon energies of the two-color laser fields are much smaller than the atomic ionization threshold, the ATI spectrum depends on the angle between the two lasers' polarization directions. While when the photon energy of one laser is comparable with or larger than the atomic ionization threshold, the ATI spectrum is independent of the angle, and only several dips appear at certain angles. By analyzing the contributions of different quantum channels, we find that, for the case that both frequencies of the two color lasers are low, the quantum interferences between the channels are strong, and hence the spectrum changes with the angle between the two lasers' polarization directions. While for the case that the frequency of one of the two color lasers is high, the contributions of the channels to the ATI spectrum decrease dramatically with increasing channel order, hence the interferences between the channels disappear, and the ATI spectrum has a step-like structure, which is independent of the angle between the two lasers' polarizations. These results can shed light on the study of the corresponding relation between classical and quantum mechanisms of the matter–laser interaction in high-frequency laser fields.     

VUV spectroscopy of magnetically trapped atomic hydrogen

We discuss the experimental and theoretical aspects of absorption spectroscopy of cold atomic hydrogen gas in a magnetostatic trap using a pulsed narrow-band source (bandwidth 100 MHz) at the Lyman- wavelength (121.6 nm). A careful analysis of the measured absorption spectra enables us to determine non-destructively the temperature and the density of the trapped gas. The development of this diagnostic technique is important for future attempts to reach Bose-Einstein condensation in trapped atomic hydrogen.     

Single-scan longitudinal relaxation measurements in high-resolution NMR spectroscopy

Several single-scan experiments for the measurement of the longitudinal relaxation time (T1) are proposed. These experiments result in fast and accurate determinations of the relaxation rate, are relatively robust to pulse imperfections, and preserve information about the chemical shift. The method used in these experiments is to first encode the T1 values as a spatial variation of the magnetization and then to read out this variation either by applying a weak gradient during acquisition or by sequentially observing different slices of the sample. As a result, it is possible to reduce the time necessary to determine the T1 values by one or two orders of magnitude. This time saving comes at the expense of the signal-to-noise level of the resulting spectrum and some chemical shift resolution.     

Diode laser spectrometer for high-resolution spectroscopy in the visible range

A high-resolution diode laser spectrometer operating at 657 nm is described. To achieve a narrow linewidth and a high power, a master-slave laser system is employed. The master laser is an extended cavity diode laser whose linewidth is reduced to less than 100 Hz by the FM sideband technique. The slave laser is an AR-coated diode laser and characteristics of injection locking are experimentally studied. The injection current of the slave laser is utilized to stabilize the output power or to produce pulsed output. Using this spectrometer, we probed the intercombination line of Ca and observed high-contrast optical Ramsey fringes with a linewidth of 10 kHz. A velocity-selective Ramsey fringe is also observed in the pulse-mode operation.     

Asymmetric structure of atomic above-threshold ionization spectrum in two-color elliptically polarized laser fields

According to the frequency-domain theory, we investigate the asymmetric structure of above-threshold ionization(ATI) spectrum of an atom in two-color elliptically polarized(EP) laser fields. When both laser fields are linearly polarized(LP), the spectrum shows that the multi-plateau structure is symmetric about the emitted angle of electron at π/2, while the spectrum becomes asymmetric and shifts rightwards with the increase of the EP degree of the IR laser field. Since the total ATI process is regarded as including direct ATI and the rescattering ATI, we analyze the spectrum structure of direct ATI and rescattering ATI separately. Using the saddle-point approximation, we find that for direct ATI, the fringes on the spectrum are mainly attributed to the fact that the ionization probability becomes very small when the direction of emitted electrons is perpendicular to the direction of the XUV laser polarization; while for the rescattering ATI, the interference fringes on the spectrum mainly come from the superposition of the waist structures on the spectra of all sub-channels.     

Solid-state laser sources for (anti)hydrogen spectroscopy

Conclusion Recently developed high-power semiconductor laser amplifiers offer new ways to construct laser sources for high-resolution spectroscopy in the blue and ultraviolet. Such sources overcome a number of limitations that are connected to the standard single-mode ring laser systems. A source of this kind can contribute significantly to the feasibility of antihydrogen spectroscopy. Experiments with hydrogen will also benefit greatly. The construction of an optical hydrogen frequency standard becomes realistic and experiments with demanding atomic preparation techniques as, for instance, optical cooling in magnetic traps are facilitated.