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Saturation Absorption Spectroscopy of Rubidium

Atom

Thesis July 2013

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Saturation Absorption Spectroscopy of Rubidium
Atom
Jayash Panigrahi
August 17, 2013

Abstract

Saturated absorption spectroscopy has various application in laser cooling

which have many relevant uses in atomic physics and quantum optics. The
spectroscopic studies in this project includes the measurement of the Doppler-
broadened absorption profiles of the D2 transitions of Rubidium at 780 nm and
then use the technique of saturated absorption spectroscopy to improvement the
resolution beyond the Doppler limit and measurement of the nuclear hyperfine
splittings.

1
Contents
1 Introduction 3

2 Theoretical background 3

3 Doppler free spectroscopy 6

4 Doppler free Saturation Absorption Spectroscopy 7

5 Conclusion 11

6 Acknowledgment 11

7 References 11

2
1 Introduction
Rb has been one of the model atomic systems studied for a long time and has
been extensively studied in quantum optics especially in laser cooling and atom
traps. There are 2 stable isotopes of Rb, viz. 87 Rb and 85 Rb with natural
abundance of 30 % and 70 % respectively. The energy level diagram is shown in
Fig. 1. The fine structure of Rb arising from the spin-orbit coupling gives rise
to two strong transitions viz. the D1 and the D2 lines. D2 line is the transition
from the 52 P3/2 excited state to the 5S1/2 ground state having a wavelength of
780.027 nm. D1 line is the transition from the 5P1/2 excited state to the 5S1/2
ground state. with a wavelength of 794.760 nm. The excited state lifetime of
the D1 line is 29.4 ns and 27.02 ns for the D2 line. The linewidth of D2 line
from the transition probability is 5.9 MHz.

2 Theoretical background
Laser interactions with atoms The difference 4E = E1 E0 between the
excited state energy E1 and the ground state energy E0 is used with Plancks
law to deter- mine the photon frequency v0 associated with transitions between
the two states:
4E = hv0 (1)
This energy-frequency proportionality is why energies are often given directly
in frequency units. For example, MHz is a common energy unit for high pre-
cision laser experiments. There are three transition processes involving atoms
and laser fields:
Stimulated absorption in which the atom starts in the ground state, absorbs a
photon from the laser field, and then ends up in the excited state. Stimulated
emission in which the atom starts in the excited state, emits a photon with the
same direction, frequency, and polarization as those in the laser field, and then
ends up in the ground state. Spontaneous emission in which the atom starts
in the excited state, emits a photon in an arbitrary direction unrelated to the
laser photons, and then ends up in the ground state.
Stimulated emission and absorption are associated with external electromag-
netic fields such as from a laser or thermal radiation. We consider spontaneous
emission first as a process characterized by a transition rate or probability per
unit time for an atom in the excited state to decay to the ground state. In the
absence of an external field, any initial population of excited state atoms would
decay exponentially to the ground state with a mean lifetime 4t = 1 1 8ns.
In the rest frame of the atom, spontaneous photons are emitted in all directions
with an energy spectrum having a mean E = hv0 and a full width at half max-
imum (FWHM) 4E given by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle 4E4t = h
or 4E = h. Expressed in frequency units, the FWHM is called the natural
linewidth and given the symbol . Thus

= (2)
2

3
For our rubidium levels, 4E 2.5 108 eV or 6MHz.[2]

Structure of Rubidium atom The Rubidium atom (Rb) has atomic number
37. In its ground state configuration it has one electron outside an inert gas core
and is described with the notation 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d10 4s2 4p6 5s1 . The integers
1 through 5 above specify principal quan- tum numbers n. The letters s, p,
and d specify orbital angular momentum quantum numbers l . as 0, 1, and
2, respectively. The superscripts indicate the number of electrons with those
values of n and l. The Rb ground state configuration is said to have filled shells
to the 4p orbitals and a single valence (or optical) electron in a 5s orbital. The
next higher energy configuration has the 5s valence electron promoted to a 5p
orbital with no change to the description of the remaining 36 electrons.

Electron spins & Fine Stuctures It was observed that magnetic field split
the energy levels into other than the three lines that we have dealt with, ac-
companied by unequal spacing. In some cases, energy level splittings similar to
that of Zeeman splitting were observed, even when there was no magnetic field
applied. The spectra of hydrogen, when observed in high-resolution, showed
lines consisting of sets of closely spaced lines called multiplets.

Electron Spin When a neutral bean was passed through a non-uniform

magnetic field, atoms were found to deflect according to their magnetic moments
with respect to their fields. It was also observed that some atomic beams were
split into an even number of components. If only orbital angular momentum
was involved, an odd number of deflections corresponding to 2j + 1 components
would have been observed. The obtained results inferred a half-integer angular
momentum j = 21 , 32 , 52 . . .. This inference led to a proposal that the electron
might have other additional motion (i.e.), the electron might possess a spinning
motion instead of behaving like a particle. This would make the electron ac-
quire spin angular momentum and magnetic moment. In a magnetic field, the
spin magnetic moment would have an additional interaction energy, besides the
one from the orbital magnetic moment. The quantization of this quantity was
necessary to the aforementioned anomalous splitting.

Spin Quantum Number It was found through precise spectroscopic ex-

periments and analysis that the spin angular momentum of an electron was
quantized as well (i.e.), the value of the components of the spin angular mo-
mentum had only two possible values,
1
Sz = (3)
2
Comparing with the orbital angular momentum relation given by Eqn: (1.6)
and replacing with the spin quantum number s = 21 , we get
r r
1 1 3
S= ( + 1)h = h (4)
2 2 4

4
With the knowledge of the fourth quantum number, called the spin quantum
number, ms = 12 , one can describe the state of a hydrogen atom completely.
The spin angular momentum vector S ~ can have only one of the two configura-
tions : spin up or spin down corresponding to + 21 h or 12 h respectively.

Spin-Orbit Coupling It was stated in the previous section that in the

absence of an external magnetic field, the spin magnetic dipole moment gives rise
to splitting of energy levels. This can be explained by the following reasoning.
The interaction energy U can be written in terms of the scalar product of the two
angular momentum vectors L ~ and S.
~ This particular effect is called spin-orbit
coupling.

Fine Structure & Hyperfine Structure The combination of spin and

angular momenta can be brought about in different manners. The total angular
momentum is given by the vector sum of the two quantum numbers,

J~ = L
~ +S
~ (5)

Since the two angular momentum vectors L~ and S

~ are quantized separately,
~
their sum J is also quantized. The possible values which this total angular
momentum vector can take, are given by
p
J = j(j + 1)h (6)

Now, we can see that it is possible to have states in which j = |l 21 |. The l + 12

states correspond to the ones where L ~ and S~ have parallel z-components, and
similarly l 21 states correspond to the ones where L ~ and S~ have anti-parallel
z-components. To illustrate this, let us take the case where l = 1. Now, j
can be either 12 or 23 . In common spectroscopic notation, these two states are
represented as 2 P 12 and 2 P 32 respectively. The letter denotes the l = 1 state,
the superscript the number of possible spin orientations, and the subscript the
value of j.
These splitting of lines resulting from the magnetic interactions are alto-
gether known as fine structure. In addition to the fine structure, there are
smaller splitting arising from the fact that the nucleus of the atom itself has a
magnetic dipole moment, orders of magnitude smaller than that of the electrons.
These smaller splittings are called as hyperfine splittings. The hyperfine split-
ting can be observed in hydrogen atom. Its ground level is split into two energy
levels separated by an interval of just 5.9 106 eV . During this transition, a
photon of wavelength 21cm is emitted.
However, the measurement of hyperfine structure becomes difficult owing to
the Doppler broadening of the atomic spectrum, which has an appreciable effect
on the hyperfine energy splittings.

5
3 Doppler free spectroscopy
Random thermal motion of atoms or molecules creates a Doppler shift in the
emitted or absorbed radiation. The spectral lines of such atoms or molecules
are said to be Doppler broadened since the frequency of the radiation emitted
or absorbed depends on the atomic velocities. Individual spectral lines may not
be resolved due to Doppler broadening, and, hence, subtle details in the atomic
or molecular structure are not revealed.

Doppler Broadening Suppose the lab reference frame is at rest and an atom
is moving at a velocity v with respect to this frame parallel to the x-axis, as
shown in the diagram. Now suppose an EM radiation of angular frequency
falls on the atom. The angular frequency of the radiation as seen from the
reference point of the atom will be:

0 = kv; (7)

where
k = 2/ = /c (8)
Note that it is the velocity component that is parallel (or antiparallel) to the
direction of propagation of the radiation that is relevant and not the total ve-
locity. The speed distribution can be obtained from the Maxwell-Boltzmann
Speed Distribution, which is:

mvi2
r  
m
f (vi ) = exp (9)
2kT 2kT
Define:
0
= 0 = kv v = (10)
k
Substituting this in equation (3), we get:

m( 0 )2
r  
m
g(wi ) = exp (11)
2kT 2k 3 T
Observe that the maximum occurs at - 0 = 1/2 , and the function falls to
half its maximum at - 0 = 1/2 where
u0 p
1/2 = ln(2) (12)
c
The Doppler-broadened line has a full width at half maximum (FWHM) given
by:
u0 p
21/2 = 2 ln(2) (13)
c
Some simple calculations using Equation(7) show that even for heavy elements,
which have a considerably smaller value of u, the value of the FWHM comes
out close to 1 GHz. As one can see, Doppler-Broadening gives a significant line

6
width and hence limits the resolution of the Spectroscopic techniques. However,
very often we need to go beyond this resolution to observe some of the properties
and hence it becomes important to get rid of this broadening. There are several
techniques such as Saturation Absorption Spectroscopy, Crossed-beam method,
Two-photon experiment to eliminate the effects of Doppler broadening.

4 Doppler free Saturation Absorption Spectroscopy

The experiment The setup for the Doppler-free saturated absorption spec-
troscopy of rubidium is shown in Figure 2. The output beam from the laser
is split into three beams, two less intense probe beams and a more intense
pump beam, at the thick beamsplitter. The two probe beams pass through
the rubidium cell from top to bottom, and they are separately detected by two
photodiodes. The two photodiodes form a balanced photodetector. After be-
ing reflected twice by mirrors, the more intense pump beam passes through the
rubidium cell from bottom to top. Inside the rubidium cell there is a region of
space where the pump and a probe beam overlap and, hence, interact with the
same atoms. This overlapping probe beam will be referred to as the first probe
beam and the other one the second probe beam.

Figure 1: Experimental setup for DFSAS

7
Spectrum The spectrum obtained for various transitions of rubidium atom
at different combinations of pump and probe beam polarization configurations,
which we changed using wave-plates is shown in fig.

Figure 2: Spectrum showing transition at different polarization

8
 9
Figure 3: Spectrum showing transition at different polarization of pump & probe
beam
Figure 4: Spectrum showing transition at different polarization

10
 5 Conclusion
As a rule of thumb, the ratio of the intensities of the pump and the probe beam
is kept to about 3. The best linewidth that we achieved was about 17 MHz
0
in 85 Rb52 S1/2 , F = 252 P3/2 , F transition. We also found that the linewidth
is also dependent on the electronic time-constant of the photodiode amplifier,
which limits the scan rate.

6 Acknowledgment
I would like thank Prof. Vasant Natarajan for providing me the bestowed op-
portunity to work in his lab and his fellow PhD scholars at Atomic and Optical
physics lab at IISc for supporting and backing me during various technical
glitches.

7 References
The above work and results are original and true to best of my knowledge. For
theoretical background I followed the Experiment SAS lab manual of Advanced
Physics Laboratory at University of Florida and PhD theses of Dr. Umakant
pursued at IISc.

11

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