A scheme of Doppler-free spectroscopy is experimentally demonstrated with a co-propagating control laser locking to an atomic hyperfine transition, and the differential transmission of the probe and the reference laser is detected. Crossover resonances are eliminated by selecting the class of atoms with zero velocity in the direction of beam propagation. In addition, the sub-Doppler spectrum experiences optical gain compared to the conventional saturated-absorption spectrum as a result of optical pumping.
By using Faraday optical filter combined with four-wave mixing （FWM） amplifier, a narrow bandwidth optical amplifying atomic filter with switchable dual-passband is demonstrated experimentally. The two transmission peaks of the filter correspond to the Stokes and anti-Stokes frequencies, exhibiting a Raman gain in 13- and 17-fold, respectively, with bandwidth of ～120 MHz. By properly setting pump laser detuning, switching between filter passbands is realized. We also investigate the dependence of peak transmission on both pump laser intensity and Rb cell temperature. This atomic filter can find practical applications in long-distance laser communications and laser remote-sensing systems.
