Version 1 as of April 17, 2013 Primary author: Joshua C.

Frechem

Doppler-Free Saturated Absorption Laser Spectroscopy of Rubidium

(Dated: April 17, 2013)

85

Rb and

87

Rb

Using the two stable isotopes of Rubidium (85 and 87), an experiment was done to show more accurate methods of spectroscopy than traditional methods. Since theres only one valance electron in Rubidium, it can be treated simply as Hydrogen in the case of this experiment. A beam from a 780nm semiconductor laser was split into 2 weak beams and 1 strong beam with the weak beams being probe beams and the strong beam the pump beam. The pump beam was shone anti-parallel to one of the probe lasers to induce the absorption of the laser energy to excite those valance electrons to transition to a higher state. To nd the resonance frequency where these electrons will transition, the voltage through a piezo-electric crystal was changed causing a frequency change in the laser giving it a scanning eect. With the aid of a near IR sensitive camera to detect when the laser was scanning, the places of these transitions were easily found. Using an oscilloscope these transitions were measured and then ratios of the real peaks were taken to compare to the expected. These ratios were the keys to naming the transitions by isotope and by hyperne level. Although two of the ratios were almost identical to the expected, two were also nearly idenitical to eachother. To determine which was which, the spectra were visually compared to the expected and identied. All experimentally obtained spectra were classied correctly and as seen on gures 3-6 and table 1, the data was very close to the expected.

INTRODUCTION

Doppler-free saturated spectroscopy was developed by the group of Arthur L Schawlow and actually won a joint Nobel prize for this development in 1981. That discovery came out of the need for more accurate optical spectroscopy. The Doppler widths of close to 500 MHz were caused by random thermal motion of atoms thus leading to the importance of Doppler-Free spectrocopy which has a way of cancelling out this Doppler width.1 Rubidium is often chosen for student labs because of the simplicity of its use in this experiment. Rubidium has a very high vapor perssure which allows it to be used at room temperature for this experiment without the use of ovens allowing the setup to be much simpler. Rubidium also only has one electron in the fth (valence) shell allowing it to be looked at with the energy level structure of Hydrogen.3 Atoms have something called a ne structure caused by the magnetic moments of electron spin and angular momentum while the hyperne structure is due to internally generated electric and magnetic elds interacting with the momentum of the electrons. The ne splittings are under the Nuclear spin(I) which is I=5/2 for 85 Rb and I=3/2 for 87 Rb.2 These numbers are determined by whether the atom is an odd-even, even-odd, even-even, or odd-odd nucleus talking about the number of protons and neutrons respectively. The levels of the Rubidium isotops this valance electron is being excited to are the 52 P1/2 and the 52 P3/2 ne levels from the 52 S1/2 term. These are called Term States. Term states are denoted by n2s+1 lj and specied by the angular momentum quantum numbers s,l, and j which n being the principal quantum number or rather the orbital shell number. In the previous equation s is the spin which in the case of stable Rubidium isotopes is 1/2

because there is only 1 valance electron and electrons are fermions with spin 1/2, l is the subshell ( s, p, d, f, g, h...), and j is the total angular momentum corresponding to |l-s| j l+s. The hyperne structure is the interaction between I (total nuclear angular momentum as stated before) and J as previously stated in the ne structure section. The total atomic angular momentum is denoted as F and are the labels for each level in the hyperne structure and are calculated similarly to J as stated above. F is calculated as |J-I| F J+I in intervals of 1(j and J denote the same quantity just as i and I also do). For dierent atoms these transitions in the hyperne structure are at dierent wavelengths (close to 780nm in this lab).4 These wavelengths allow the electron to transition up an energy level and this can only happen at resonance frequences where the pump laser is in phase with moving atoms. These facts can be exploited with a tuneable laser to scan a small stretch of wavelngths to nd these levels in a process called saturated spectroscopy. The lab explained in this write-up explains a more accurate way of analyzing these transitions by cancelling out the Doppler Eect. The reason this saturated absorbtion spectroscopy is more accurate is because all of the transitions mentioned about require energy from the laser to excite the electron to the excited state. This loss in energy results in dips in the spectra allowing more detail of the spectra to be shone. Six dips are shown in the spectra but three of them are crossovers. Crossovers happen exactly half-way between the real transitions so these can be calculated and used later on in the lab when labeling spectra. Additionally, due to the Doppler Eect, crossovers are caused when atoms are in resonance with both the pump and the probe beams causing the pump beam to seem at a lower frequency giving a false positive.

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EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND PROCEDURE

This experiment started o with a tunable 780nm semiconductor diode laser that was tunable with a piezoelectric crystal that changed lengths as a voltage between 0 and 100 volts was run across it. The change in piezo length corresponded to a change in the angle of a grating. As the laser hit this grating the main beam reected out as the experimental beam while some was reected onto a mirror which in turn was reected back at the grating. This reection back at the grating allowed for the laser to actually function because it caused the laser light to be in phase which built up the beam of the laser with the correct light which in turn came out as the experimental laser. The mirror used to reect the secondary beam back to the grating was set to tune the laser at 780 nm and by changing the voltage of the piezo, the beam could be minutely changed to scan a wide enough range of wavelengths to observe the transitions up to the 52 P3/2 hyperne levels which would allow characterization of the spectrums obtained. With the laser at 780 nm, the beam went out to a beam splitting glass that was thick enough to have reections o the from and back surface of the glass to give two weak beams that reected towards this experiment while the transmitted beam would have gone to another experiment. Of these two weak beams one was blocked while the other went to another beam splitter. This time the two even weaker beams (probe beams) reected into a vacuum tube containing the two isotopes of Rubidium 85 Rb and 87 Rb. The transmitted beam (the pump beam) was reected around to enter the vacuum tube and cross only one of the probe beams. Then two thin pieces of glass were used to reect parts of each beam (the probe beam and the newly corrected beam) to a photo-detector. The expectation of this was to get the Doppler-broadened prole from the probe beam and subtract it from the Doppler-broadened prole that included the hyperne absorbtions and what would be left was the spectra of these hyperne transitions. Due to uncalibrated instruments the only outcomes possible were classifying the spectra to their respective isotope and transition. However, with calibrated instruments, more steps could have been taken to get data for things such as the Full-Width-Half-Max of the Doppler-broadened lines as well as obtaining acual values for the frequency distances in the transitions rather than just comparisons.

trum was chosen and printed as a small image ( all four t on one side of a printed page). This was done so only the peaks could be measurable. If the images were printed too large, measurement errors grew considerably due to dierent placings for measurement marks. For wide peaks, the mid-point of the peak was chosen as the measurement point with measurements being accurate to half a millimeter. The known values are shown in gures 1 and 2 for 85 Rb and 87 Rb respectively. The 85 Rb F=2 to F=1,2 the ratio of frequencies was calculated to be .316 leaving F=2 to F=2,3 to be .684. 85 Rb F=3 to F=2,3 had a calculated ratio of .344 while the F=3 to F=3,4 ratio was .656. The calculated ratio for 87 Rb F=1 to F=0,1 was .315 with the F=1 to F=1,2 ratio being .685. Then, for 87 Rb, the F=2 to F=1,2 ratio was calculated as .37 and F=2 to F=2,3 as .63. Using the clear, smooth images of the spectra, the experimental frequency ratios were found to be for 85 Rb F=2 to F=1,2,3 as .317 and .683 having only a 0.3% error. 85 Rb F=3 to F=2,3,4 the experiment yielded ratios of .347 and .653 with an error of 0.8%. 87 Rb transition from F=1 to F=0,1,2 yielded an error of 1.6% with ratios of .32 and .68 while the largest error yield was for 87 Rb F=2 to F=1,2,3 with ratios of .384 and .616. These results and comparisons can be seen in table 1 while the spectra can be seen in gures 3 through 6.

CONCLUSION

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Upon having done several trials with little success in nding all four spectra, the last time all four were found and the spectra used were the cleanest spectra manageable. Averages were not taken due to the discrepancies of measurement placement having varying eects on the calculated ratios. The single cleanest image for each spec-

While the results were very close for 85 Rb the results were considerably higher, although still well within reason, for 87 Rb. While classifying each spectrum with its appropriate transition, the lower energy transitions (transitions from the lower hyperne level of the ground state for each isotope to the lower hyperne levels of the excited electron) proved dicult to distinguish from one another. The 85 Rb F=2 transition and the 87 Rb F=1 transition had ratios almost identical. That closeness made it a guess as to which spectrum was which and ultimately the decision was made by observing previously taken spectra of the two and comparing. Magnetic elds, ambient light and ambient noise all contributed to the diculty of getting a smooth spectrum and seeing more detail but the spectrum came out beautifully for the most part and despite the occasional mode hop it was fairly consistent. Getting a perfectly matching spectrum for 85 Rb F=2 proved too dicult with the environment and equipment given but the obtained spectrum contains all of the same characteristics minus a dip in the spectrum at the rst crossover. Errors in measuring the ratios were cut down by decreasing the image size allowing only measurements of the peaks to be considered however it was still an as close as possible scenario. Another source of error could have been nonlinear stretching of the piezo in the tuner of the laser. This would cause the ratio to

3 be o and depending on how nonlinear the stretch of the piezo is results in a change in the ratios away from the expected.
<http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena/course/8/8.13/ JLExperiments/JLExp 48.pdf> [3] Background and Theory Reference3: Doppler-Free Saturated Absorption: Laser Spectroscopy, Daryl Preston, Department of Physics, California State University, 22 July 1996 [4] Background and Theory Reference4: A study of the Hyperne Structure of Rubidium, Beth Denius, Thomas Haynie, and Andrew Borleske, Davidson College Department of Physics, <http://webphysics.davidson.edu/Alumni/bedenius/ rubidium/ title.htm>

[1] Background and Theory Reference1: Doppler-Free Saturated Absorption Spectroscopy: Laser Spectroscopy, lab handout, Swarthmore College, 2001 [2] Background and Theory Reference2: Doppler-Free Spectroscopy, lab handout, MIT, 2000

FIG. 1: This image shows the energy levels and wavelengths of the transitions from 52 S1/2 to the 52 P3/2 ne level with all of the hyperne levels of each for 85 Rb

FIG. 2: This image shows the energy levels and wavelengths of the transitions from 52 S1/2 to the 52 P3/2 ne level with all of the hyperne levels of each for 87 Rb.

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Ground State 85 Rb F=2 to 85 Rb F=3 to 87 Rb F=1 to 87 Rb F=2 to Hyperne level F= 1,2 F= 2,3 F= 2,3 F= 3,4 F= 0,1 F= 1,2 F=1,2 F= 2,3 Expected 0.316 0.684 0.344 0.656 0.315 0.685 0.370 0.630 Experimental 0.317 0.683 0.347 0.653 0.320 0.680 0.384 0.616 TABLE I: This table shows all expected and experimental data for the transition frequency ratios going from the ground 52 S1/2 to the excited 52 P3/2 state. The rst row shows the ground state of which isotope of Rubidium it represents and breaks into two columns each in the second row that represents the ratio of both transitions the electron can undergo.

FIG. 3: This image shows the spectrum of the 85 Rb 52 S1/2 F=3 to 52 P3/2 F=2,3,4 transition. The yellow line is the Doppler Broadened line with hyperne saturations, the blue line is the Doppler prole, and red is the Doppler-free spectrum of the transition observed.

FIG. 4: This image shows the spectrum of the 85 Rb 52 S1/2 F=2 to 52 P3/2 F=1,2,3 transition. The yellow line is the Doppler Broadened line with hyperne saturations, the blue line is the Doppler prole, and red is the Doppler-free spectrum of the transition observed.

FIG. 5: This image shows the spectrum of the 87 Rb 52 S1/2 F=2 to 52 P3/2 F=1,2,3 transition. The yellow line is the Doppler Broadened line with hyperne saturations, the blue line is the Doppler prole, and red is the Doppler-free spectrum of the transition observed.

FIG. 6: This image shows the spectrum of the 87 Rb 52 S1/2 F=1 to 52 P3/2 F=0,1,2 transition. The yellow line is the Doppler Broadened line with hyperne saturations, the blue line is the Doppler prole, and red is the Doppler-free spectrum of the transition observed.