Continuous Wave Single-Frequency Mid-IR OPO Laser for Controlled Collisions of Vibrationally Excited Polyatomic Molecules

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Abstract:

This DURIP grant funded the purchase of a TOPTICA cw-OPO laser for scattering experiments in support of our MURI on Quantum State Control of Molecular Collision Dynamics. It was installed remotely owing to the pandemic by students Shameemah Thawoos and Chatura Perera. The installation went very smoothly despite the complexity of the system. The tunable cw-OPO laser from TOPTICA offers a wide range of tunability from 1.45 - 4.0 micro m with a narrow linewidth of ~ 1 MHz. Its very convenient since all the tuning actuators can be controlled from the computer automatically. The resolution of the wavelength measurements are limited only by the wavemeter that we use which is around 10 MHz. Even without frequency locking we still have very stable IR laser radiation with ~1.3 W of power coming out from the idler. We have started working on locking the frequency of the interested transition to achieve more stability on the IR radiation. As the first step we set up an experiment to demonstrate the preparation of molecules in a specific rovibrationally excited state using the tunable IR radiation from the cw-OPO. Our goal was to achieve a complete population inversion of a two level system by rapid adiabatic passage (RAP). This technique has been demonstrated previously for various different molecules and we used NH3 in our experiment with the intention of expanding our study towards a molecular scattering experiment where we will study the collisions of vibrationally excited NH3 in our near copropagating beam apparatus.

Author(s):
Suits, Arthur G.
Author Organization(s):
MISSOURI UNIV-COLUMBIA
Funding Organization(s):
ARMY RESEARCH LAB RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK NC, RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC
Document Type:
Technical Report/Final Report
Publication Date:
2021 Sep 25
Pagination:
8

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DOCUMENT & CONTEXTUAL SUMMARY

Distribution Code:
A - Approved For Public Release
Distribution Statement: Public Release.
Copyright: Not Copyrighted

RECORD

Collection: TRECMS
Subject Terms
Descriptor(s):
molecular beams, spectra, lasers, frequency, ground state, laser beams, quantum states, radiation, scattering, spectroscopy, molecules, physics, polyatomic molecules, absorption spectra, collisions, continuous waves, electromagnetic radiation
Keyword(s):
cw (CONTINUOUS WAVE), cw Single-Frequency Mid-IR OPO Lasers, Vibrationally Excited Polyatomic Molecules, opo (Optical parametric oscillator), rap (rapid adiabatic passage), NH3 (ammonia)
Subject Categories:
Electrotechnology and Fluidics; Physics
Modernization Areas:
Quantum Science and Computing
Communities of Interest:
Descriptor(s):
scattering, frequency, radiation, ground state, spectra, spectroscopy, lasers, molecular beams, absorption spectra, collisions, continuous waves, electronic states, laser beams, missouri, molecules, physical chemistry, quantum states
Creation Date:
2023 Sep 07
Update Date:
2023 Nov 06