Saturation spectroscopy, disadvantages

Oscillator strengths or absorption cross sections may be obtained by applying saturation spectroscopy techniques to multistep photoionization spectroscopy. A few transitions in uranium have been studied.One of the advantages of saturation spectroscopy is that it can be applied to any one of the steps in the schemes shown in Fig. 2. The disadvantages are that the experimental requirements are severe (laser-atomic beam interaction area,-frequency,-band width and-polarization) and interpertation of the data can be complex. A detailed discussion will not be given because little application has been made to the lanthanides and actinides. We will discuss in the Autoionization section the determination of photoionization cross sections by a saturation method. 

---