Abstract

The resonant interaction of optical radiation with atomic vapors can excite the atoms into anisotropic states with long lifetimes. The conventional description of these states uses an expansion in a basis of multipole moments, which are represented by irreducible tensor operators. We demonstrate an experimental method that permits the excitation of these atomic multipole moments in specific, experimentally controllable spatial orientations. Complementary optical methods permit the observation of multipole moments of arbitrary order and a direct measurement of their spatial orientation. We demonstrate these procedures in the ground state of atomic sodium, using optical pumping to polarize the angular-momentum substates. We show how the experimental results can be used to separate signal contributions that originate from different multipole moments.

© 1994 Optical Society of America

Rotation properties of multipole moments in atomic sublevel spectroscopy

Dieter Suter, Thomas Marty, and Harald Klepel
Opt. Lett. 18(7) 531-533 (1993)

Magnetic resonance line shapes in optical pumping and light-shift experiments in alkali atomic vapors

J. Skalla, S. Lang, and G. Wäckerle
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 12(5) 772-781 (1995)

Phase and amplitude variations of optically induced spin transients

Martin Rosatzin, Dieter Suter, Wulfhard Lange, and Jürgen Mlynek
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 7(7) 1231-1238 (1990)

Simplest atomic system for sub-Doppler laser cooling

R. Gupta, S. Padua, C. Xie, H. Batelaan, and H. Metcalf
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 11(4) 537-541 (1994)

Reflection spectroscopy of spin-polarized atoms near a dielectric surface

Stefan Grafström, Tilo Blasberg, and Dieter Suter
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 13(1) 3-10 (1996)