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Applied Physics Letters

Light-controlled vapor deposition by light-induced drift

Jeffrey A. Kleinfeld, Alan D. Streater

Published Jun 14, 1993• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Light-controlled deposition of potassium atoms onto a glass surface by light-induced drift (LID) is demonstrated. The collection of atoms by wave-front curvature is found to be important for maximizing the deposition rate. The light control of diffusive deposition is demonstrated by using LID to push atoms away from surface regions where a layer is not wanted. The measured spatial resolution of this process in the experiment was about 100 μm. Pressure and intensity effects on both deposition processes are discussed.

DOI
10.1063/1.109140

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Physical Review A•Aug 1, 1988•15 citations
Light-controlled deposition of potassium atoms onto a glass surface by light-induced drift (LID) is demonstrated. The collection of atoms by wave-front curvature is found to be important for maximizing the deposition rate. The light control of diffusive deposition is demonstrated by using LID to push atoms away from surface regions where a layer is not wanted. The measured spatial resolution of this process in the experiment was about 100 μm. Pressure and intensity effects on both deposition processes are discussed.
In the past, interpretation of light-induced drift (LID) effects in alkali–noble gas mixtures in capillary cells has been severely complicated by surface interactions. As an example, the velocity of the optical piston, a spectacular manifestation of LID, is limited by adsorption–desorption processes to a value in the mm/s range.1 Recently, a breakthrough has been made: by coating the capillary wall with paraffin the surface interaction has been completely eliminated leading to transport velocities in the m/s range and allowing a study of LID in its pure form.2 Here we report the first measurements of the detuning and intensity dependence of the drift velocity in Na–noble gas mixtures and compare these to theory.
We investigated the light-induced desorption (LID) of Rb atoms from quartz substrates to understand better the LID observed in alkali-metal vapor cells used in laser cooling experiments. The substrate was first exposed to Rb under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. The Rb was found to diffuse into the substrate by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Rb atoms were then deposited with a density of $\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{15}$ atoms/cm2{}^{2}2 on the surface, from which LID was observed upon irradiation by ultraviolet light. The LID rate depended linearly on the light intensity in the investigated range up to 15 mW/cm2{}^{2}2. A typical value was 1010{10}^{10}1010 atoms/(s cm2{}^{2}2) per mW/cm2{}^{2}2 at a photon energy of 4.3 eV (290 nm in wavelength). We found that the LID rate increased with photon energy in the range 1.8--4.3 eV (700--290 nm in wavelength).
We report an experimental and theoretical study of the optical piston, a consequence of the phenomenon of light-induced drift (LID), observed in binary mixtures of Na vapor and a buffer gas. Good agreement has been found between experiment and existing theory as far as the shape of the Na density profile in the piston is concerned. The piston velocity is anomalously low; this is accounted for by incorporating the effects of adsorption and desorption into the theory. Furthermore, we introduce a rate-equation model for LID which incorporates the fine and hyperfine structure of the level scheme of the Na absorbers; this gives insight into the sublevel velocity distributions and the nonequilibrium part of the total velocity distribution during LID.