Quantified absorption of laser light by silver atoms in a hollow-cathode lamp

Abstract

We present a quantitative study of laser absorption on the $5{^{2}}\mathrm{S}_{1/2} \rightarrow 5{^{2}}\mathrm{P}_{3/2}$ transition of silver in a hollow-cathode lamp. Spectra obtained using a weak probe are measured and compared to a simple theoretical model. We fit our results to extract an effective temperature and number density associated with the silver in the lamp and confirm that the spectra are dominated by Doppler broadening. We consider the broadening effect of collisions between silver and the neon buffer gas in the lamp, and establish that these effects are small but modify the optimum effective parameters for the model. Our work results in a simple, quantitative, and predictive model for laser absorption in the lamp.