Accession Number:

ADA289413

Title:

Toward Coherent Excitation: Development of a Single-Source Pump for the Rubidium Hyperfine Ground State Doublet.

Descriptive Note:

Master's thesis,

Corporate Author:

AIR FORCE INST OF TECH WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB OH

Personal Author(s):

• Tomme, Edward B.

Report Date:

1994-12-01

Pagination or Media Count:

63.0

Abstract:

Coherent excitation is a phenomenon which, if achieved, could provide a new tool for the investigation of many fundamental questions in atomic physics and quantum optics. A design which could produce such coherences could lead to applications as varied as lasing without inversion and electromagnetically induced transparency. In this thesis, the basic theory concerning the generation of coherent superpositions of the ground states of atomic rubidium is reviewed. Next, the design, construction, and testing of a Littrow-style grating-tuned laser and a standing wave electro-optic modulator used in generating sidebands at the frequency matching the rubidium hyperfine ground state doublet are described. An experiment demonstrating simultaneous absorption by the 85Rb F2 and 85Rb F3 using a single laser as the pump is chronicled. An experiment to test coherences generated by this method of single-source pumping of the ground state doublet is proposed.

Descriptors:

• *EXCITATION
• *COHERENCE
• *TUNABLE LASERS
• QUANTUM THEORY
• OPTICS
• LASERS
• ELECTROMAGNETIC PROPERTIES
• THESES
• TRANSPARENCE
• GROUND STATE
• RUBIDIUM
• TEST AND EVALUATION
• GRATINGS(SPECTRA)
• STANDING WAVES
• ELECTROOPTICS
• MODULATORS
• FREQUENCY
• MATCHING
• ABSORPTION
• LASER PUMPING
• HYPERFINE STRUCTURE
• ATOMIC ENERGY LEVELS
• SIDEBANDS
• SPIN STATES

Subject Categories:

• Lasers and Masers
• Inorganic Chemistry
• Atomic and Molecular Physics and Spectroscopy

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE