https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530070020
Pump probe experiment in atomic fine structure levels: Observation of the oscillation of an angular wavepacket
Laboratoire de Collisions Agrégats Réactivité, IRSAMC, Université Paul Sabatier, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
Received:
30
July
1999
Revised:
4
April
2000
Published online: 15 November 2000
Spin precession is investigated through a pump-probe technique which represents an alternative method to previous investigations by wavepacket interferometry. The excited wavepacket corresponds to a precession of spin and orbital angular momentum around the total angular momentum. We discuss and compare two equivalent descriptions of the phenomena, one given in the stationary states and the other in the bright state-dark state formalism. We show that this latter formalism is the most appropriate to describe the dynamics.
PACS: 32.80.Qk – Coherent control of atomic interactions with photons / 32.80.Rm – Multiphoton ionization and excitation to highly excited states (e.g., Rydberg states) / 42.50.Md – Optical transient phenomena: quantum beats, photon echo, free-induction decay, dephasings and revivals, optical nutation, and self-induced transparency
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2000
