Collision-induced stimulated photon echo at the transition 0–1 in ytterbium: application to depolarizing collisions

Abstract

A new idea based on the collision-induced stimulated photon echo in the presence of weak longitudinal magnetic field is applied to the depolarizing collisions research in a gaseous mixture of ytterbium vapour with xenon. Comparison of experimental data with theoretical prediction for the collision-induced stimulated photon echo in the weak magnetic field shows that the alignment decay rate of state 3 P 1 in 174 Yb is higher than the orientation decay rate.

174Yb3P1level relaxation found via weak magnetic field dependence of collision-induced stimulated photon echo

“…However, just the weak magnetic field behaviour of the collision induced stimulated photon echo component polarized along the first exciting pulse polarization is the instrument providing the knowledge of the sign for difference Γ b . As can be seen in Figure 4(c), the collision induced stimulated photon echo increases in the weak magnetic field region, confirming the first experimental result [18].…”

“…In our previous experiment we did not control the pulse areas so strictly as it is now. In the current experiment we get the difference of about 1.01•10 6 s −1 , which is comparable in the order of magnitude to the less precise estimate of about 5.77•10 6 s −1 made in [18].…”

“…In figure 4(c) we get the echo signal ratio in its first max imum indicated in [19] as J em to the value in the zero magn etic field (in figure 4(c) at the point of +0.15 G) indicated as J e0 , so r = J em /J e0 ≈ 25.56. For comparison, in our previous experiment [18], this ratio was about ten. Possibly, the high difference of the ratio may be attributed to the different time delays for these two experiments.…”

“…A good agreement between the theoretical and exper imental curves representing the collisioninduced stimulated photon echo dependence on the magnetic field allowed estimating the difference Γ b at a higher precision than it was done in [18]. In figure 4(c) we get the echo signal ratio in its first max imum indicated in [19] as J em to the value in the zero magn etic field (in figure 4(c) at the point of +0.15 G) indicated as J e0 , so r = J em /J e0 ≈ 25.56.…”

Effect of the phase switching of the optical FID in magnetic field

“…The longitudinal magnetic field causes the rotation of the FID polarization plane. This was observed previously in application to the rotation of the photon echo polarization plane [13][14][15][16][17][18]. The angle of rotation depends on the time after the excitation pulse [19,20].…”