5B9 - Double resonance gas laser spectroscopy in neon

A stimulated emission version of the Dodd and Series double-resonance experiment has been performed in neon on the 1.15-μ and 1.52-μ lasing transitions using a He-Ne gas laser placed in a transverse magnetic field. Auxiliary coils wound on the laser tube provide a RF magnetic field orthogonal to the transverse field. Changes in the laser intensity at values of the transverse field which are rational fractions of the field for which the Larmor frequency equals the RF frequency are observed in accordance with theory. The measured linewidth of resonance is 45 ± 10 MHz for the 1.15-μ transition and 40 ± 10 MHz for the 1.52-μ transition, indicating that the natural width of excited states is observed. We have obtained the
g
-factor for the
2s_{2}
level in neon;
g = 1.23 \pm .05
. As the laser cavity length is adjusted to provide axial mode separations in the neighborhood of the RF frequency, varying numbers of resonances are seen. These effects are discussed on the basis of a threshold theory in which transition probabilities are calculated with coherent matrix elements.