Alkali-rare gas photodissociation lasers: applications to laser physics and atom-atom interactions

Abstract

This dissertation describes several experiments in which alkali--rare gas laser systems are utilized as a simple platform with which to isolate and study atom-atom interactions and fundamental physical processes that are ill-understood or have never been investigated previously. Specifically, the minimum allowable energy separation between levels 2 and 3 in a three-level laser system has been investigated experimentally, as have two-photon absorption processes in atomic Rb and Cs.