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Technical Physics

Observation of a circular dichroism of an ensemble of triplet metastable helium atoms in a Na-He gas-discharge plasma with laser-oriented sodium atoms

Sergei P. Dmitriev, N. A. Dovator, R. A. Zhitnikov, Victor A. Kartoshkin, V. D. Melnikov

Published Jan 1, 2000• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We describe an experiment on the observation of a circular dichroism of an ensemble of triplet metastable helium atoms in a sodium-helium gas-discharge plasma where Na atoms are optically oriented with circularly polarized radiation of a laser tunable around the resonant sodium doublet (with wavelength of 589.0 and 589.6 nm, corresponding to the 3 2 S 1/2 ⇄ 3 2 P 1/2 and 3 2 S 1/2 ⇄ 3 2 P 3/2 transitions). Conditions of observation and the polarization degree of 2 3 S 1 atoms are determined.

DOI
10.1134/1.1259561

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We describe an experiment on the observation of a circular dichroism of an ensemble of triplet metastable helium atoms in a sodium-helium gas-discharge plasma where Na atoms are optically oriented with circularly polarized radiation of a laser tunable around the resonant sodium doublet (with wavelength of 589.0 and 589.6 nm, corresponding to the 3 2 S 1/2 ⇄ 3 2 P 1/2 and 3 2 S 1/2 ⇄ 3 2 P 3/2 transitions). Conditions of observation and the polarization degree of 2 3 S 1 atoms are determined.
It has been demonstrated that optical pumping of alkali atoms (rubidium and cesium) results to a highly efficient indirect optical orientation of metastable He (2 3 S 1 ) atoms. However, in an attempt to perform the inverse experiment (i.e. to receive spin-polarization of alkali atoms upon optical pumping of metastable helium atoms) the result was quite unexpected: the magnetic resonance signal of Cs or Rb atoms was very weak (several hundred times weaker compared to conventional optical pumping of helium in the presence of cesium (rubidium)). We propose an explanation for the unusually small ratio of the magnetic resonance signals from Cs (Rb) and metastable He atoms under condition of optical orientation of He atoms. Except of Cs atoms we are the first to have observed magnetic resonance signals from atoms of 85 Rb and 87 Rb isotopes when using the indirect optical orientation in conditions of helium-rubidium gas discharge plasma. It is shown that the anomaly in the amplitude ratios of the observed MR signals can be explained by the unidirectional action of three different factors (the presence of a large nuclear spin of alkali atoms, depolarization of alkali atoms between collisions, and spin exchange between atoms of rubidium isotopes (for the He-Rb system).
We are the first to experimentally observe a magnetic-resonance signal of 62 S 1/2 Cs atoms by absorption of light from a helium lamp that was used to optically orient metastable 23 S 1 He atoms. The amplitude of the cesium signal proved to be almost three orders of magnitude lower than the amplitude of the magnetic resonance of 23 S 1 He atoms. Particular features of the creation and observation of the collisional polarization of cesium under conditions of alkali-helium plasma have been discussed.
Diode laser optical pumping to produce a highly spin-polarized metastable He beam to be used in a spin-polarized metastable atom deexcitation spectroscopy experiment on magnetized surfaces is described. Efficient pumping of the beam is performed by means of an SDL-6702 distributed Bragg reflector diode laser which yields 50 mW of output power in a single longitudinal mode at 1083 nm, the resonance wavelength for the 23 S→23 P0,1,2 (D0, D1, and D2) transitions of He*. The light is circularly polarized by a quarter-wave plate, allowing easy change of the sense of atomic polarization. The laser frequency can be locked to the atomic transition for several hours by phase-sensitive detection of the saturated absorption signal in a He discharge cell. Any of the three transitions of the triplet system can be pumped with the laser but the maximum level of atomic polarization of 98.5% is found pumping the D2 line.