Saturation Effects of Dark Magneto-Optical Resonances Observed on the Alkali D₁ Line

Theoretical studies of saturation effects of dark magneto-optical resonances are presented. A model based on the optical Bloch equations is applied to simulate numerically the alkali D₁ excitation in external magnetic field. The laser power densities at which the expected dark resonance contrast reaches maximum are analyzed and correlated with the quantum superposition states induced by exciting laser field. Fictional hyperfine structure constants for the excited state are used to vary the selection efficiency of hyperfine transitions.