Characteristics of saturation spectroscopy at the Balmer-α line of atomic hydrogen in a linear magnetized plasma source

Abstract

We adopted saturation spectroscopy for observing a Doppler-freespectrum of the Balmer-α line of atomic hydrogenin a linear magnetized plasma source.The spectrum was composed of a broadband offset and many peakswhich were assigned as fine-structure components of the Balmer-α linewith Zeeman splitting.We examined the amplitudes of the offset and line components as functionsof the pump laser power and the discharge gas pressure.The saturation parameter or the amplitude of the saturation spectrum wasdiscussed by referring to the theory of saturation spectroscopy.In addition, the physical origin of the broadband offset componentwas speculated on the basis ofthe pressure dependence of the saturation spectrum.