Optical detection of magnetic resonance in alkali-metal, vapor using d(1) and d(2) radiation simultaneously

Change in polarization produced by circularly polarized D(1) + D(2) radiation and destroyed by the resonance can be observed by monitoring the intensity of the radiation transmitting the vapor. The polarization and intensity of the absorption signal (change in absorption of the radiation produced by the resonance) are calculated from the solutions of equations governing the rate at which the populations of Zeeman sublevels of the ground state change. The result shows that the polarization increases as the disorientation mixing in the excited state decreases, and that the signal intensity is nearly equal to that when the D(1) radiation was used alone. Signal representation derived by Bell and Bloom based on Bloch's equations is modified so as to be applied to the experiment using D(1) + D(2) radiation as well as to that using D(1) radiation alone. The calculated result from the representation shows that the amplitude of the modulation signal (rf light modulation at the resonance) for D(1) + D(2) radiation is also nearly equal to that for D(1) radiation alone.