Effects of Zeeman degeneracy on optical dynamic Stark splitting

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Abstract
In a double resonance experiment with a strong pump beam and a weak probe beam multiplet structures due to the AC Stark effect can be observed. The authors report the first observation of such a multiplet in a three-level experiment. The linearly polarised beams from a CW dye laser and a I2 stabilised He-Ne laser were counter-propagating in the neon discharge cell and the saturating laser frequency was tuned across the resonances. The quadruplet structure was observed both for zero and for non-zero detuning delta 2 of the probe beam. The corresponding calculations for the three-level system with degenerate levels have been performed using the density matrix formalism with a tensorial expansion of the matrix elements. The theory includes the coupling of the various Zeeman sublevels by spontaneous emission and by the interaction with the two beams, and takes into account the finite value of the Doppler width.