Features of the Formation of the Spin Polarization of an Alkali Metal at the Resolution of Hyperfine Sublevels in the 2 S 1/2 State

• Published in: JETP letters 2018-01, Vol.108 (8), p.513
• Main Authors: Popov, E N, Bobrikova, V A, Voskoboinikov, S P, Barantsev, K A, Ustinov, S M, Litvinov, A N, Vershovskii, A K, Dmitriev, S P, Kartoshkin, V A, Pazgalev, A S, Petrenko, M V
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alkali metals; Cesium 133; Cesium isotopes; Excitation; Magnetic resonance; Nitrogen; Nuclei (nuclear physics); Polarization (spin alignment)
• ISSN: 0021-3640; 1090-6487
• DOI: 10.1134/S0021364018200122

The optical orientation of the angular momenta of alkali atoms in the presence of a buffer gas (molecular nitrogen) has been studied experimentally. It has been shown that, even at a low concentration of molecular nitrogen in the cell, the excitation of 133Cs atoms from the lower hyperfine level with F = 3, which belongs to the ground 2S1/2 state, results in a larger amplitude of the magnetic resonance than the excitation from the hyperfine level with F = 4. This result has been theoretically explained under the assumption that the spin state of the alkali atomic nucleus does not change at collision with a nitrogen molecule, which is accompanied by a nonradiative transition of the alkali atom from the excited 2P1/2 state to the ground 2S1/2 state.