Abstract

In this work, we exploit velocity-space Ramsey fringes in a new way to study collision-induced optical coherence transfer¹ between two adjacent optical transitions in atomic ¹⁵⁴Sm. The study of Optical coherence transfer is of special interest because it may be suppressed by classical trajectory separation,² whereby the excited- to ground-state coherence is destroyed for impact parameters for which coherence transfer is likely.

© 1991 Optical Society of America