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Camp, Howard Alan 2005-05-09T21:00:34Z 2005-05-09T21:00:34Z 2005-05-09T21:00:34Z 2005 May http://hdl.handle.net/2097/73 In recent years, coherent excitation techniques have focused on the ability to efficiently prepare atomic or molecular systems into a selected state. Such population control plays a key role in cutting-edge research taking place today, such as in the areas of quantum information and laser-controlled chemical reactions. Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) is a widely-used coherent excitation technique that provides a relatively robust control mechanism for efficiently exciting a target population into a desired state. While the technique is well proven, current experimental techniques yield little information on the population dynamics taking place throughout the excitation process, and experimentalists rely solely on final excited-state measurements to determine the efficiency of population transfer. This dissertation presents a unique diagnostic tool to measure multilevel coherent population transfer on a short (nanosecond) timescale. The technique described here uses magneto-optical trap recoil ion momentum spectroscopy (MOTRIMS) as a noninvasive probe of a coherently-controlled system. It provides extremely detailed information about the excitation process, and highlights some important characteristics seen in excited populations that would otherwise be misleading or completely overlooked if one were to use more traditional diagnostic techniques. This dissertation discusses both the theoretical and experimental results applied to three-level coherently excited target populations of Rb-87. Chemical Sciences; Geosciences and Biosciences Division; Office of Basic Energy Sciences; Office of Science; U.S. Department of Energy Doctor of Philosophy Doctoral Department of Physics Brett D. DePaola 16348562 bytes 28073381 bytes 21859 bytes application/pdf application/octet-stream application/pdf en_US Kansas State University © the author. This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ Coherent excitation Time evolution STIRAP Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage MOTRIMS Magneto-optical trap recoil ion momentum spectroscopy COLTRIMS Physics, Atomic (0748) Physics, Molecular (0609) Physics, Optics (0752) Measurements of the time evolution of coherent excitation Dissertation open.access