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Physical Review A

Transverse measurements of polarization in optically pumped Rb vapor cells

Joan Dreiling, Eric B. Norrgard, D. Tupa, T. J. Gay

Published Nov 26, 2012• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have developed a simple heuristic method for determining the polarization of an optically pumped alkali-metal vapor. A linearly polarized probe beam traverses a vapor cell perpendicular to the pump-beam propagation direction, and the transmitted beam intensity is monitored for orthogonal linear polarizations. As the probe beam is scanned in frequency across the ${D}_{1}$ transition, its linear-polarization-dependent transmission can be used as a measure of the atomic orientation of the vapor. We analyze these transmission differences and their dependence on the alkali-metal number density in the vapor.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.86.053416

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IEEE Transactions on Magnetics•Oct 18, 2012•27 citations
We have developed a simple heuristic method for determining the polarization of an optically pumped alkali-metal vapor. A linearly polarized probe beam traverses a vapor cell perpendicular to the pump-beam propagation direction, and the transmitted beam intensity is monitored for orthogonal linear polarizations. As the probe beam is scanned in frequency across the D1{D}_{1}D1​ transition, its linear-polarization-dependent transmission can be used as a measure of the atomic orientation of the vapor. We analyze these transmission differences and their dependence on the alkali-metal number density in the vapor.
A laser beam with left-/right-handed circular polarization is generally used to create the oriented atomic spins for precision measurements in a spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) co-magnetometer. The fluctuation of laser polarization interferes with the spin polarization of alkali metal atoms, leading to the system performance degradation. Here, we report a method for real-time polarization state measurement by using the transmitted light intensity of the pump beam passing through the vapor cell. Based on the principle of circular dichroism, the optical absorption model of polarized alkali metal atoms is established. The simulation results of the transmittance of the pump laser with different polarization states through the alkali metal vapor cell are given and verified by experiments. The experimental results show that the circularly polarized beam has the weakest absorption, while the linearly polarized laser beam is absorbed the strongest. The achieved measurement accuracy stands at an impressive 98.83 %. This work provides a simple and easy-to-use way to measure the polarization state of the laser beam used in the vapor cell devices, particularly the microfabricated prototypes with limited space.
High sensitivity measurements of inertia and magnetic field could be achieved by utilizing a category of devices, which manipulate the atomic spins in the spin-exchange-relaxation-free regime. The alkali cell which contains the alkali metal vapor is used to sense magnetic field and inertia. The atomic number density of alkali vapor and the polarization of alkali metal vapor are two of the most important parameters of the cell. They play an important role in the research on atomic spins in the spin-exchange-relaxation-free regime. Besides, optical polarization plays an important role in quantum computing and atomic physics. We propose a measurement of alkali vapor polarization and alkali number density by detecting the optical rotation in one system. This method simplifies existing experimental equipment and processes. A constant bias magnetic field is applied and the Faraday rotation angle is detected by a bunch of the probe beam to deduce alkali-metal density. Then the magnetic field is closed and a bunch of the pump laser is utilized to polarize alkali-metal. Again, the probe beam is utilized to obtain the polarization of alkali metal. The alkali density obtained at first is used to deduce the polarization. This paper applies a numerical method to analyze the Faraday rotation and the polarization rotation. According to the numerical method, the optimal wavelength for the experiment is given. Finally, the fluctuation of magnetic field and wavelength on signal analysis are analyzed.
Traditionally, atomic spin orientation is achieved by the transfer of angular momentum from polarized light to an atomic system. We demonstrate the mechanism of orientation generation in room-temperature caesium vapors that combines three elements: optical pumping, nonlinear spin dynamics, and spin-exchange collisions. Through the variation of the spin-exchange relaxation rate, the transition between an aligned and an oriented atomic sample is presented. The observation is performed by monitoring the atomic radio-frequency spectra. The measurement configuration discussed paves the way to simple and robust radio-frequency atomic magnetometers that are based on a single low-power laser diode that approach the performance of multilaser pump-probe systems.
Optically pumped alkali metal atoms currently provide a sensitive solution for magnetic microscopic measurements. As the most practicable plan, Faraday rotation of linearly polarized light is extensively used in spin polarization measurements of alkali metal atoms. In some cases, near-resonant Faraday rotation is applied to improve the sensitivity. However, the near-resonant linearly polarized probe light is elliptically polarized after passing through optically pumped alkali metal vapor. The ellipticity of transmitted near-resonant probe light is numerically calculated and experimentally measured. In addition, we also analyze the negative impact of elliptical polarization on Faraday rotation measurements. From our theoretical estimate and experimental results, the elliptical polarization forms an inevitable error in spin polarization measurements.
A variation of the usual method of atomic orientation of alkali metal vapors by optical pumping is proposed. This variation consists of employing a single circularly polarized D1{D}_{1}D1​ line as pumping radiation, instead of a mixture of the two DDD lines. Under these conditions, one magnetic substate of the ground state is transparent to the pumping radiation. It is shown that for a sufficiently intense light source and relatively weak relaxation, the entire population of the vapor will tend to be pumped into this single state, resulting in nearly one-hundred percent atomic orientation. The pumping process is analyzed in detail for sodium vapor illuminated with $3{P}_{\frac{1}{2}}\ensuremath{-}3{S}_{\frac{1}{2}}$ radiation, and the time dependence of the populations of the eight magnetic sublevels of the ground state is computed. It is shown that in the steady state, the light absorption by the vapor is linear rather than exponential with distance. A simple method of measuring relaxation times based on this observation is suggested. The conditions under which the imprisonment of resonance radiation limits the size of the oriented sample are discussed, and it is suggested that the proposed technique will allow the alignment of larger samples than is possible by the usual method of optical pumping.
We measured the spatial homogeneity of spin polarization, which is directly related to the sensitivity and magnetic linewidth of an optically pumped atomic magnetometer with a hybrid cell of K and Rb atoms. This was done by changing the position of the probe beam. Furthermore, for comparison, we also measured the sensitivity and magnetic linewidth of atomic magnetometers with single K and single Rb cells, and found that optically thick atoms were spin polarized homogeneously with the hybrid cell. Optically thin alkali metal vapor can be spin polarized homogeneously, and the spin polarization transfers to an optically thick alkali metal vapor. An atomic magnetometer with the hybrid cell was found to be more effective in realizing simultaneous signal measurements at different locations with the uniform sensitivity and magnetic linewidth.