Xenon saturation spectroscopy by diode laser

Summary

Commercial diode lasers have emission wavelengths which overlap some absorption xenon lines. We have performed saturation spectroscopy of four lines, leaving from the first excited atomic configuration 5p ⁵6s, at 823.16 nm, at 828.01 nm, at 834.68 nm and at 820.63 nm, in a weak glow discharge of natural xenon. Natural xenon is a mixture of several isotopes, and the two even isotopes, Xe(129) (26% of relative abundance) and Xe(131) (21%), have a nuclear spin (1/2 and 3/2, respectively) that produces a hyperfine structure. The complex resulting spectra have been resolved and the results are compared with the available literature data.