Absolute absorption on rubidium D lines: comparison between theory and experiment

Siddons, P.; Adams, C.S.; Ge, Chang; Hughes, I.G.

Abstract

We study the Doppler-broadened absorption of a weak monochromatic probe beam in a thermal rubidium vapour cell on D lines. A detailed model of the susceptibility is developed which takes into account the absolute linestrengths of the allowed electric dipole transitions and the motion of the atoms parallel to the probe beam. All transitions from both hyperfine levels of the ground term of both isotopes are incorporated. The absorption and refractive index as a function of frequency are expressed in terms of the complementary error function. The absolute absorption profiles are compared with experiment, and are found to be in excellent agreement provided a sufficiently weak probe beam with an intensity under one-thousandth of the saturation intensity is used. The importance of hyperfine pumping for open transitions is discussed in the context of achieving the weak-probe limit. Theory and experiment show excellent agreement, with an rms error better than 0.2% for the D2 line at 16.5 °C.

Citation

Siddons, P., Adams, C., Ge, C., & Hughes, I. (2008). Absolute absorption on rubidium D lines: comparison between theory and experiment. Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 41(15), Article 155004. https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-4075/41/15/155004

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2008
• Deposit Date: Jan 26, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 1, 2012
• Journal: Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
• Print ISSN: 0953-4075
• Electronic ISSN: 1361-6455
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 41
• Issue: 15
• Article Number: 155004
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-4075/41/15/155004
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1496257