Effect of preliminary two-frequency optical pumping on resonance fluorescence of sodium atomic beams

The effect of preliminary excitation by double-frequency linearly polarized radiation on the fluorescence of a beam of sodium atoms in a probing laser beam is investigated. It is shown that the optical pumping of the ground state in the first laser beam can lead to appreciable dependence of the fluorescence signals on the conditions of excitation and observation. In particular, under definite experimental conditions, rotation of the plane of polarization of the probing radiation produced a change in the recorded signal by a factor of ∼20. 13 refs., 6 figs