Abstract

Spectral observations of atomic resonance fluorescence (RF) from atomic beams [1-3] are not quite satisfactory: (i) The short duration of the light interaction with the atoms moving across the light gives rise to spectra that differ from the spectrum as conventionally defined with a long interaction time, (ii) Simultaneous light interaction with the members of an ensemble of atoms conceals certain quantum features of the interaction process that do show up in the light interaction with single atoms, eg anti-bunching and quantum jumps.

© 1996 Optical Society of America