New feature in selective reflection with a highly parallel window: phase-tunable homodyne detection of the radiated atomic field

Abstract

Selective reflection (SR) of light from a cesium vapor-sapphire interface close to the D 2 resonance line has been studied by use of a sapphire window with highly parallel surfaces. Temperature-tuning of the Fabry-Perot behaviour of the window [Jahier et al., Appl. Phys. B 71, 561 (2000)], resulting in a change of 0.5 to 26 % of the window reflection coefficient, dramatically affects both the magnitude and lineshape of the SR resonant atomic signal. For nearly zero window reflection, the case of particular interest, the absorptive properties of the atomic medium govern the signal shape, as opposed to the usual dispersive ones in the "ordinary" SR. This is a manifestation of homodyne detection of the radiated atomic field. The numerical simulation based on a model, which accounts for all the processes involved, shows a good agreement with the experimental spectra. Possible applications for laser and atomic spectroscopy, in particular tunable locking of laser frequency, are discussed.

Rigorous theory of thin-vapor-layer linear optical properties: The case of specular reflection of atoms colliding with the walls

“…( 29)-( 30) without additional assumptions about the field structure within the layer, which are usually associated with the imposition of dielectric boundary conditions at the initial stage of the calculations. This achievement of the proposed approach is promising in the development of devices based on the resonant interaction of light with plasmonic nanostructures surrounded by alkali metal vapors [6,30], and prospective in the implementation of gas cells with temperature tunable parameters [40,41].…”

Selective reflection studies of molecular cesium vapor

“…4 There are many theoretical and experimental studies of selective reflection. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Most of developed theoretical models deal with the approximation of dilute media where the collisional linewidth is much narrower than the Doppler broadening. [6][7][8][9][10] In other limiting case, for high densities, when the collisional broadening exceeds the Doppler width, the spatial dispersion of the medium may be disregarded.…”

Nonlinear Forward Scattering in Cesium Vapor: Experiment with Simultaneous Scanning of Laser Frequency and B-Field

“…Highly parallel sapphire window plates glued to the cell body were carefully cut along the 0001 crystallographic plane, i.e., across the c-axis, to reduce birefringence (the actual value was below 15 mrad), and provided the possibility of decreasing the reflection coefficient below 0.5% by means of window temperature control. 11,12 The side arm temperature was kept at 37 8C (Cs vapor density is N Cs ¼ 1.4 3 10 11 cm À3 ), which corresponds to the optically thick vapor regime for linear (low-intensity) absorption. The cell was placed in three pairs of mutually perpendicular Helmholtz coils, providing the possibility of canceling the dc component of the ambient magnetic field and applying a longitudinal B-field.…”