Lasing on the D lines of sodium pumped by free→free transitions of Na-Xe collision pairs

Lasing on the D1 and D2 lines of Na (589.6 and 589.0 nm, respectively) has been generated simultaneously by photoexciting free→free transitions of thermal Na-Xe collision pairs. Pumping the blue satellite of the Na D2 line in Na/Xe mixtures (λ ≈ 560 nm) selectively interacts with Na-Xe pairs having an instantaneous internuclear separation of ∼5 A and culminates in the population of both Na (32PJ) fine structure levels. The spectral width of the laser excitation spectrum is 1.3 nm (centered at 560.1 nm) and the 32P3/2→32S1/2 (D2) laser linewidth was measured to be 9.2 ± 0.6 GHz, which is consistent with a coefficient of 18.4 MHz/Torr for broadening of the D2 589.0 nm transition by Xe.Lasing on the D1 and D2 lines of Na (589.6 and 589.0 nm, respectively) has been generated simultaneously by photoexciting free→free transitions of thermal Na-Xe collision pairs. Pumping the blue satellite of the Na D2 line in Na/Xe mixtures (λ ≈ 560 nm) selectively interacts with Na-Xe pairs having an instantaneous internuclear separation of ∼5 A and culminates in the population of both Na (32PJ) fine structure levels. The spectral width of the laser excitation spectrum is 1.3 nm (centered at 560.1 nm) and the 32P3/2→32S1/2 (D2) laser linewidth was measured to be 9.2 ± 0.6 GHz, which is consistent with a coefficient of 18.4 MHz/Torr for broadening of the D2 589.0 nm transition by Xe.

[1]  Richard M. Osgood,et al.  Alkali‐metal resonance‐line lasers based on photodissociation , 1979 .

[2]  V Keith Kanz,et al.  Resonance transition 795-nm rubidium laser. , 2003, Optics letters.

[3]  J. Eden,et al.  Lasing on the lithium resonance line at 670.7 nm , 1983 .

[4]  J. Eden,et al.  Observation of the continuous transformation of a four level laser into a two level system , 2012 .

[5]  Joseph T. Verdeyen,et al.  Excimer-pumped alkali vapor lasers: a new class of photoassociation lasers , 2010, LASE.

[6]  Shang-yi Ch'en,et al.  Broadening and Shift of Spectral Lines Due to the Presence of Foreign Gases , 1957 .

[7]  Alan Gallagher,et al.  Extreme-Wing Line Broadening and Cs-Inert-Gas Potentials , 1972 .

[8]  V. K. Kanz,et al.  End-pumped continuous-wave alkali vapor lasers: experiment, model, and power scaling , 2004 .

[9]  J. White.  Inversion of the Na resonance line by selective photodissociation of NaI , 1978 .

[10]  C. A. Primmerman,et al.  Atmospheric-turbulence measurements using a synthetic beacon in the mesospheric sodium layer. , 1991, Optics letters.

[11]  Chester S. Gardner,et al.  Experiments on laser guide stars at Mauna Kea Observatory for adaptive imaging in astronomy , 1987, Nature.

[12]  John Pitre,et al.  SENSITIZED FLUORESCENCE IN VAPORS OF ALKALI METALS: IX. ENERGY TRANSFER IN COLLISIONS BETWEEN SODIUM AND INERT GAS ATOMS , 1967 .

[13]  M. Jongerius.  Collisional broadening of the Na D lines by xenon in high-pressure sodium arcs , 1987 .

[14]  Takuya D. Kawahara,et al.  Sodium temperature lidar based on injection seeded Nd:YAG pulse lasers using a sum-frequency generation technique. , 2011, Optics express.

[15]  D. Carroll,et al.  Four level, atomic Cs laser at 852.1 nm with a quantum efficiency above 98%: Observation of three body photoassociation , 2010 .

[16]  Paul Hickson,et al.  High-resolution lidar observations of mesospheric sodium and implications for adaptive optics. , 2009, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision.

[17]  R. Zare,et al.  Atomic and Molecular Fluorescence Excited by Photodissociation , 1965 .

[18]  R V Markov,et al.  Population inversion induced by collisions in a two level system under nonresonance optical excitation. , 2002, Physical review letters.