Enhancement of optically pumped spin orientation via spin-exchange collisions at low vapor density

An effect is demonstrated where off-resonant optical pumping is enhanced by spin-exchange collisions, which enables a high degree of spin orientation to be obtained in alkali-metal atoms. The experiment with room-temperature cesium vapor employs radio-frequency spectroscopy under conditions of the n...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics Atomic, molecular, and optical physics, 2012-04, Vol.85 (4), Article 043402
Main Authors: Chalupczak, W., Godun, R. M., Anielski, P., Wojciechowski, A., Pustelny, S., Gawlik, W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atomic properties
Collisions
Density
Mathematical models
Optical pumping
Orientation
Populations
Zeeman effect
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Summary:An effect is demonstrated where off-resonant optical pumping is enhanced by spin-exchange collisions, which enables a high degree of spin orientation to be obtained in alkali-metal atoms. The experiment with room-temperature cesium vapor employs radio-frequency spectroscopy under conditions of the nonlinear Zeeman effect that allow the populations of the individual Zeeman sublevels to be determined. The improved efficiency of atomic orientation leads to a significant reduction of population relaxation out of the state with maximum magnetic quantum number m (stretched state), which is observed as a narrowing of radio-frequency resonances. Spin-exchange collisions play a crucial role in this effect although the applied atomic density similar to 10 super(11) cm super(3) corresponds to collision rates not greater than several tens of Hz. A simplified theoretical model has been developed to reproduce the measurement results numerically.
ISSN:1050-2947
1094-1622
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevA.85.043402