Spectropolarimetric measurement of populations in degenerated atomic systems with metastable lower level during optical pumping in intense laser fields

The prospects for application of a nonlinear laser polarization spectroscopy for measuring the steady-state population characteristics in the degenerated atomic systems with metastable lower state during optical pumping in intense laser fields are considered. It is shown that a combination of the polarization spectroscopy of a probe field and the Faraday effect allows to measure immediately the population differences for “enriched ” and “depleted” Zeeman's sub-levels during the process of optical pumping as well as for optical coupled sub-levels of lower and upper states of the transition. The experimental results for the 1 s 5→2 p 2 (J=2→J=1) and 1 s 5→2 p 4 (J=2→J=2) Ne 20 transitions and their comparison are given.