Raman spectroscopy in the presence of stray resonant light.

In this paper, we explore and quantify the effects of stray light on stimulated Raman transitions. The stray light causes decoherence in the measurement of Rabi cycling and also causes increased differential AC Stark shift. These results are quantified as a function of the power of the stray light.

Design and optimization of a volume-phase holographic grating for simultaneous use with red, green, and blue light using unpolarized light.

Volume-phase holographic (VPH) gratings have been designed for use in many areas of science and technology, such as optical communication, optical imaging, and astronomy. In this paper, the design of a volume-phase holographic grating, simultaneously optimized to operate in the red, green, and blue wavelengths, is presented along with a study of its fabrication tolerances. The grating is optimized to produce 98% efficiency at λ=532 nm and at least 75% efficiency in the region between 400 and 700 nm, when the incident light is unpolarized. The optimization is done for recording in dichromated gelatin with a thickness of 12 µm, an average refractive index of 1.5, and a refractive index modulation of 0.022.