Abstract

Oscillating pulse reshaping effects have been observed for weak-pulse propagation in Na vapor.¹ The results show that the main pulse reshaping mechanism is the dispersion of the index of refraction n caused by the resonance line of Na. In this contribution we demonstrate that coherent pulse propagation can be used to study interference effects in high lying atomic Rydberg states. Depending on the pulse length τ₀, the wavelength and the principal quantum number n the spectral pulse envelope will overlap with one or more Rydberg levels when propagating through the atomic vapor. The oscillatory reshaping structure strongly depends on the dispersion from each individual level. As these oscillations are not in phase, strong interference effects will occur comparable to effects observed in the coherent excitation of Rydberg wave packets.² In contrast to the excitation of Rydberg wave packets the interference effects observed here are caused only by the dispersion of the atomic vapor.

© 1994 IEEE