High-resolution saturated absorption spectroscopy with coherent trains of short light pulses

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Abstract
The feasibility of saturated absorption with two counterpropagating trains of short light pulses from a frequency-locked, synchronously pumped, mode-locked, cw dye laser is demonstated. In contrast with the experiments using a single-frequency laser, several velocity classes contribute to the signal, thus increasing the signal-to-noise ratio. In addition, the advantages reported for two-photon spectroscopy (precise frequency scale, increase of the second harmonic, etc.) are available in this new technique.