Transmission of tunable diode laser emission, through rubidium vapor, as a function of laser intensity

We study laser intensity absorption, at the wavelength of 780 nm, in neutral rubidium vapor using a tunable external cavity diode laser close to the (RbD2)-Rb-85 line. The dependence of laser transmission, as a function of laser intensity, was calculated using the optical Bloch equations and compared with the experiment. The calculations were extended to the saturated absorption case and compared to saturated absorption spectra. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment is observed. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America