P. Zalicki et al., COHERENT SATURATION EFFECTS IN A NA2 LASER-INDUCED FLUORESCENCE EXPERIMENT - THEORY AND EXPERIMENT, Molecular physics, 79(4), 1993, pp. 899-909
In this paper we analyse the effect of coherent saturation in the lase
r-induced fluorescence (LIF) of molecules. We develop an earlier model
introduced by Billy et al. in 1987 of this coherent effect and propos
e a simple formula predicting the line shape and the line intensity fo
r a laser molecule interaction time considerably longer than the excit
ed-state radiative lifetime. The predictions of this formula are teste
d on a LIF experiment in which a Na2 molecular beam is excited with a
continuous-wave single-frequency dye laser. Considerable spectral broa
dening, up to two hundred times the natural linewidth is observed, in
good agreement with the model.