Abstract

We applied the spectral correlation technique to the laser-probed resonant magneto-optic spectroscopy. In the experiment we used the Voigt configuration, i.e., the magnetic field was transverse to the optical path. We measured the resonant Voigt-effect signals for the sodium D₂ transition using a CW dye laser pumped by an Ar-ion laser, and for the rubidium D₂ transition using a single-longitudinal-mode GaAlAs diode laser. The Voigt-effect signals, measured with various values of the incident light ellipticity and the analyzer offset angle, had a Zeeman splitting of 50-GHz (full width) for sodium and 42-GHz for rubidium. To obtain the total energy contained in the whole profile of the signal we calculated the correlation function for the measured signal signal S_exp and the theoretical profile S_m.¹,² In the calculation the theoretical profile, which was used as the matched filter, was normalized so that the squared amplitudes, $S_{\text{m}}^2(\omega )$, integrated over the profile was equal to unity. With this normalization the correlation function, Φ(ω) = ⟨(S_exp(ω′)S_m(ω′ − ω)⟩, coincides with the total signal energy contained in the whole profile when the offset angular frequency ω is equal to zero. On the other hand, fluctuations in the far wings of the correlation function remains the same in amplitude as those contained in the background of the original signal, because noise arises from the stochastic processes.

© 1995 IEEE