SUB-DOPPLER SPECTROSCOPY OF EXCITED ATOMS IN THE MULTILAYER GAS CELL

Abstract

The possibilities of spectroscopy in a multilayer cell with a rarefied gas medium are theoretically investigated, when this cell can be used as a compact analogue of a large number of plane-parallel beams of atoms (or molecules) on the optically excited quantum level. Such a situation is realized, in particular, for metastable and also highly excited long-lived Rydberg states of atoms and molecules. The efficiency of the velocity selection of atoms (molecules) on a similar quantum level excited by broadband optical pumping, due to their characteristic transit and collisional relaxation in the cell under consideration, is established. As a result of this selection, narrow sub-Doppler resonances arise at the frequencies of optical transitions from a given level in the absorption of a probe monochromatic light beam.