Abstract
The principal difficulty associated with a chapter on laser spectroscopy is what to leave out. Many entire books are devoted to techniques and applications of lasers in atomic and optical physics. We have tried to stick to a guideline of direct relevance to optical spectroscopy, particularly high-resolution spectroscopy, and to give an idea of the types of experiment that can be performed ‘better’ with lasers and the types that cannot be performed without lasers. Certain applications that fall in the first category, double resonance and Raman spectroscopy and the measurement of lifetimes of excited states, have been left to the appropriate sections of Chapters 9 and 12. No attempt is made to cover nonlinear effects like self-induced transparency, optical bistability and the optical transients such as superradiance, optical nutation and photon echoes.
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References
General Further Reading
Corney, A. (1977) Atomic and Laser Spectroscopy, Oxford University Press.
Loudon, R. (1973) The Quantum Theory of Light, Oxford University Press.
Mooradian, A., Jaeger, T. and Stokseth, P. (eds) (1976) Tunable Lasers and Applications (Springer Series in Optical Sciences, Vol. 3), Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Schafer, E.P. (ed.) (1973) Dye Lasers (Topics in Applied Physics, Vol. 1), Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Series, G.W. (1984) Laser spectroscopy, Contemp. Phys., 25, 1.
Walther, H. (1976) Laser Spectroscopy of Atoms and Molecules, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
In this general category we also put the two ‘Nobel prize articles’
Bloembergen, N. (1982) Non-linear optics and spectroscopy, Rev. Mod. Phys., 54, 685
Schawlow, A.L. (1982) Spectroscopy in a new light, Rev. Mod. Phys., 54, 697.
Diode Lasers and Ultra-Violet Lasers
Camparo, J.C. (1985) The diode laser in atomic physics, Contemp. Phys., 26, 241.
Jamroz, W. and Stoicheff, B.P. (1983) Generation of tunable coherent VUV radiation Progress in Optics, Vol. 20, North-Holland, Amsterdam.
Sobelmann, I.I. and Vinogradov, A.V. (1985) On the problem of extreme UV and X-ray lasers, Adv. Atomic Molec. Phys., 20, 327.
Frequency Standards
Baird, K.M. (1983) Frequency measurement of optical radiation, Phys. Today, 37, 52.
Petley, B.W. (1983) The Fundamental Physical Constants and the Frontiers of Measurement, Hilger, Bristol.
High-Resolution and Doppler-Free Spectroscopy
Knight, P.L. (1981) Laser spectroscopy beyond the natural linewidth, Comments Atomic Molec. Phys., 10, 241.
Lehmann, J.C. (1978) Recent developments in the spectra of small molecules, Rep. Prog. Phys., 41, 609.
Shimoda, K. (ed.) (1976) High Resolution Laser Spectroscopy (Topics in Applied Physics, Vol. 13), Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Thompson, R.C. (1985) High resolution laser spectroscopy of atomic systems, Rep. Prog. Phys., 48, 531.
Multiphoton Transitions and Rydberg Atoms
Stenholm, S. (1979) Laser-induced multiphoton transitions, Contemp. Phys., 20, 37.
Four review-type articles have been published in Advances in Atomic and Molecular Physics (D.R. Bates and B. Bederson eds):
Edelstein, S.A. and Gallagher, T.F. (1978) Rydberg atoms, Vol. 14, p. 365.
Feneuille, S. and Jacquinot, P. (1981) Atomic Rydberg states, Vol. 17, p. 99.
Gallas, J.A.C, Leuchs, G, Walther, H. and Figger, H. (1985) Rydberg atoms: high resolution spectroscopy and radiation interaction, Vol. 20, p. 414.
Haroche, S. and Raimond, J.M. (1985) Radiative properties of Rydberg states and resonant cavities, Vol. 20, p. 350.
High Laser Fields
Knight, P.L. and Milonni, P.W. (1980) The Rabi frequency in optical spectra, Phys. Rep., 66, 21.
Mollow, B.R. (1981) Theory of intensity-dependent resonant light scattering and fluorescence, Progress in Optics, Vol. 19.
Laser Cooling and Trapping
Letokhov, V.S. and Minogin, V.G. (1981) Laser radiation pressure on free atoms, Phys. Rep., 73, 1.
Stenholm, S. (1986) The semiclassical theory of laser cooling, Rev. Mod. Phys., 58, 699.
Werth, G. (1985) Trapped ions, Contemp. Phys., 26, 241.
Wineland, D.J. and Itano, W.M. (1983) High resolution spectroscopy of stored ions, Adv. Atomic Molec. Phys., 19, 135.
Miscellaneous
Letokhov, V.S. (1981) Is it possible to detect very rare atoms by means of laser radiation? Comments Atomic Molec. Phys., 10, 257.
New, G.H.C. (1983) The generation of ultrashort laser pulses, Rep. Prog. Phys., 46, 877.
“State-of-the art” articles are to be found in the Springer Series in Optical Sciences Laser Spectroscopy, published in alternate years by Springer-Verlag, notably Vols III, IV, V and VI for 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1983, respectively.
This list should make an adequate starting point for further reading, but it is undoubtedly incomplete, even at the time of writing. The review journals cited in this list should be consulted for relevant articles published after 1985–86.
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© 1988 Anne P. Thorne
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Thorne, A.P. (1988). Laser spectroscopy. In: Spectrophysics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1193-2_8
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