Numerical studies of the growth and decay of resonance fluorescence: Trapping time versus atom concentration for mercury, sodium, cadmium, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen resonance lines

Abstract

The ratio of trapping time T to natural lifetime τ has been calculated numerically, at atom concentrations N in the range 10 10 to 10 17 cm −3, for the N 120.0 nm, H 121.6 nm, O 130.6 nm, Hg 184.9 nm, Cd 228.8 nm, Hg 253.7 nm, Cd 326.1 nm and Na 589.0 nm resonance lines. Allowance has been made for multiplet and hyperfine structure. Differences in the form of graphs of T/τ versus N between transitions having large and small f values are accounted for. For the Hg 253.7 nm line the calculated trapping times are in excellent agreement with experimental data in the literature over the entire concentration range, from very small to very large optical depths.