Sub-Doppler spectra of sodium $D$ lines in a wide range of magnetic field: theoretical study

Abstract

We compute the interaction of a sodium vapor with a static magnetic field ranging from 0 up to 1 Tesla, which allows to obtain the behavior of all Zeeman transitions as a function of the magnetic field for any polarization of incident laser radiation: $\pi, \sigma^\pm$. We use these results combined with a Fabry-P\'erot microcavity model to describe the transmitted and reflected signal of a sodium vapor confined in a nanometric-thin cell. This allows us to present for the first time high resolution absorption spectra, and provide a complete description of the Zeeman transitions, along with some important peculiarities such as the appearance of guiding transitions and magnetically-induced circular dichroism. The obtained theoretical results can be used in the upcoming experiments with sodium vapor nanocells.