An investigation of laser-induced fluorescence for measuring velocity distributions of neutral atoms using a CW dye laser

The velocity distribution of evaporated Zr atoms has been measured by means of laser-induced fluorescence using a cw dye laser by scanning the laser line across the Doppler-broadened absorption line profile of the atoms. It is shown that the experimental data can be explained on the basis of an excitation theory for a three-level system developed from basic principles. It was calculated that the probability for an atom to be in the excited state mainly depends on the radiation-power density of the laser and on the residence time of the atom in the exciting laser light. It was found that the laser frequency must be well stabilized in order to meet the assumptions in the excitation calculation. Otherwise deviations to the theoretical predictions appear in the experimental results due to the jitter of the dye laser.