Nonlinear laser spectroscopy and magneto-optics

s, Windsor 1998, p. 345; W. K. Hensinger, A. G. Truscott, H. Rubinsztein-Dunlop, and N. R. Heckenberg, ‘‘Variations of relative line intensity in saturation spectroscopy due to low magnetic fields,’’ submitted to Opt. Quantum Electron. This cell was manufactured in the early sixties and is a leftover from the intense investigations of optical pumping carried out at UC Berkeley at that time; see, e.g., J. Yellin, Ph.D. thesis, UC Berkeley, 1965; H. M. Gibbs, Ph.D. thesis, UC Berkeley, 1965. Coated ~and uncoated! cells are also available commercially, e.g., from EOSI, Boulder, CO. E. Pfleghaar, J. Wurster, S. I. Kanorsky, and A. Weis, ‘‘Time of flight effects in nonlinear magneto-optical spectroscopy,’’ Opt. Commun. 99, 303–308 ~1993!. M. A. Bouchiat and J. Brossel, ‘‘Relaxation of Optically Pumped Rb Atoms on Paraffin-Coated Walls,’’ Phys. Rev. 147 ~1!, 41–54 ~1966!. E. B. Alexandrov, M. V. Balabas, A. S. Pasgalev, A. K. Vershovskii, and N. N. Yakobson, ‘‘Double-Resonance Atomic Magnetometers: from Gas Discharge to Laser Pumping,’’ Laser Phys. 6 ~2!, 244–251 ~1996!. C. Wieman and T. W. Hänsch, ‘‘Doppler-free laser polarization spectroscopy,’’ Phys. Rev. Lett. 36, 1170–1173 ~1976!. Channel Industries, Inc., tel. ~805! 967-0171, change in length type tube, wall thickness 20 mills, material type C-5600. Magnetic Shield Corp. Perfection Mica Company, Bensenville, IL 60106, tel. ~630! 766-7800. THE CRUEL PESSIMISM OF SCIENCE The official, popularizing versions of the story @of science#, written by scientists or philosophers like Bertrand Russell who allowed themselves to be seduced by science, are very different from mine. For them the story is heroic, a great human struggle to free ourselves of the shackles of old illusions and confront the one certain truth that it is our particular destiny to grasp. Science, in this view, is a triumphant human progress towards real knowledge of the real world. This is the official view of the schoolroom and the television spectacular. For me it is nonsensical propaganda which conceals all the important issues. In my version the story is a sad one, a long tale of decline and defeat, of a struggle to hold back the cruel pessimism of science. Bryan Appleyard, Understanding the Present—Science and the Soul of Modern Man ~Pan Books, London, 1992!, p. 79. 592 Budker, Orlando, and Yashchuk