Collisions atomiques et spectroscopie laser cohérente résolue dans le temps

Un parallèle est établi entre l’absorption saturée et différents processus du type “écho de photon”, dans la perspective de leur application à l’étude des collisions atomiques dans les gaz à basse pression. Les particularités des échos de photon sont mises en évidence sur les exemples de l’écho de photon stimulé et de l’écho de photon “classique”. Les résultats expérimentaux récents sont brièvement passés en revue. L’application de la méthode d’écho de photon à l’étude de collisions inélastiques quasi-résonnantes est envisagée

Hyperfine structure of Tm3+ in YAG for quantum storage applications

International audienceQuantum storage of photons in an atomic ensemble can be obtained by using three-level K systems. In these schemes, two levels are coupled by optical transitions to a third one. Ideally, the two transitions should have similar intensities and long coherence lifetimes. Rare earth ion doped crystals are attractive materials for quantum storage because their hyperfine levels can have coherence lifetimes longer than 100 ls and thus can be used to build K systems. Tm3+ ions are especially interesting since they can be excited by ultra-stable laser diodes. In this paper, the hyperfine structures of the 3H6(0) and 3H4(0) crystal field levels of Tm3+ in Y3Al5O12 are investigated by hole burning spectroscopy under a magnetic field. The results are compared to theoretical calculations and found to be in reasonable agreement. Moreover, it is shown that an appropriate magnetic field is able to relax the selection rule on the nuclear spin projection, an absolutely necessary condition to obtain an efficient three-level K system with Tm3+ in this host. Finally, a magnetic field orientation optimized with respect to the K system transition intensity ratio is predicted for a convenient experimental set-up

COLLISIONAL IONIZATION IN A RESONANTLY EXCITED ATOMIC VAPOR

L'ionisation collisionnelle de vapeurs de sodium et de baryum excitées par un rayonnement laser résonnant, continu ou puisé, est étudiée par spectroscopie électronique. Dans le cas du sodium, on déduit des résultats des sections efficaces d'ionisation associative et Penning pour les états excités.Collisional ionization of sodium and barium vapors resonantly excited with c.w. or pulsed laser sources, and subsequent electron-atom energy transfers, are studied by electron spectroscopy. Cross sections for associative and Penning ionization of sodium in excited states, are obtained