UCL Discovery

Abstract

We describe measurements of the Autler-Townes splitting in optical transitions in uranium using pulsed lasers in a double optical resonance experiment. These measurements give absolute values for transition strengths. Although the resolution of the experiments is insufficient to show explicitly either the magnetic degeneracy of the levels, or the quantum mechanical oscillations which arise from the pulse shape, theoretical analysis shows that both these effects contribute significantly to the observed lineshapes. Separate experiments in which a third laser was used to ionize the uranium through an autoionizing level were also performed and a fit to the ion yield as a function of laser intensities provides confirmation of the coupling strengths derived from the double optical resonance experiments.