S. Zamith et al., Pump probe experiment in atomic fine structure levels: Observation of the oscillation of an angular wavepacket, EUR PHY J D, 12(2), 2000, pp. 255-261
Spin precession is investigated through a pump-probe technique which repres
ents an alternative method to previous investigations by wavepacket interfe
rometry. The excited wavepacket corresponds to a precession of spin and orb
ital angular momentum around the total angular momentum. We discuss and com
pare two equivalent descriptions of the phenomena, one given in the station
ary states and the other in the bright state-dark state formalism. We show
that this latter formalism is the most appropriate to describe the dynamics
.