Zeeman spectra of atomic iodine in a 0- to 400-gauss B field

Abstract

ABSTRACT A high-resolution, continuously tunable 1 .3 m diode laser is used as a small signal probe to investigate the Zeeman spectraof atomic iodine. A heated quartz cell containing a small amount of '2 S placed in a 0 to 400 gauss B field lmnsverse to the axis of the laser probe. Hyperfine spectral scans are recorded as a function of B-field strength and laser polarization and arecompared to theory with very good agreement.Keywords: Atomic iodine, Zeeman spectrum, hyperfine spectrum. 1. BACKGROUND A theoretical model describing the hyperfine structure and complex spectroscopy of iodine atoms in a magnetic field hasbeen presented by Belousova' . A detailed description and methods of numerical solution of this theoretical model has beenpublished by Kelly2 and will not be presented here. However, the output of a PC program described in Kelly's dissertation isused here to fit the experimental results. What follows is a brief description to aid in the interpretation of the data presented.Due to the non-zero nuclear spin, the 2P1, —* 2P312 spin orbit transition in atomic iodine has a hyperfine structure consisling ofsix magnetic dipole transitions as illustrated in Fig. 1. The allowed values ofthe total atomic angular momentum F, electronicplus nuclear are given by F —