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Updated: Aug 7, 2026

Piezoreflectance Spectroscopy of Optical Transitions in van der Waals Layered Crystals
Published on: May 22, 2026
Comparison of 87Rb N-resonances for D1 and D2 transitions
Irina Novikova1, David F Phillips, Alexander S Zibrov
1Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusettes 02138, USA. inovikova@cfa.harvard.edu
Abstract:
We report an experimental comparison of three-photon-absorption resonances (N-resonances) for the D1 and D2 optical transitions of thermal (87)Rb vapor. We find that the D2 N-resonance has better contrast, a broader linewidth, and a more symmetric line shape than the D1 N-resonance. Taken together, these factors imply superior performance for frequency standards operating on alkali D2 N-resonances, in contrast with coherent population trapping resonances, for which the D2 transition provides poorer frequency standard performance than the D1 transition.
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