Abstract

Superfluorescent transitions were observed between high-lying levels in Sr I and Ba I. The time inequalities for single-pulse superfluorescence¹ were fulfilled,² so that the experiments could be performed with single superfluorescent pulses. Superfluorescent cascades and competing transitions could be avoided by making the atomic-beam density sufficiently small. The superfluorescent transitions studied are in Ba 6snp ¹P₁ − 6sns ¹S₀ (n = 912) and in Sr 5sns ¹S₀ - 5s(n − 1) p ¹P₁ (n = 910) and 4d5p ¹P₁ − 5s6d¹D₂.

© 1993 Optical Society of America