Study of relaxation of molecular iodine by the method of saturated absorption spectroscopy

The paper describes detailed experimental studies of the width, shape and shifts of saturated absorption resonances at the X(v=0, j=13)B(v=43, j=12) transition of molecular iodine. Use of the geometry of oppositely travelling and unidirectional waves in the experiment and study of the luminescence decay under pulsed excitation allowed estimation of the cross-sections of elastic and inelastic scattering of I₂ molecules on the upper and lower levels of transition. The observed nonlinear dependence of width and shift of the saturation resonance on iodine pressure is explained by the influence of elastic collisions with no phase mismatch.