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Physical Review Letters

Production of Atomic Alkali-Metal Beams in Single Hyperfine Sublevels

W. Dreves, H.J. Jänsch, Edmund Koch, D. Fick

Published May 30, 1983• 50 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A compact source which produces atomic alkali-metal beams in individual hyperfine sublevels has been developed. The methods are demonstrated with $^{23}\mathrm{Na}$ atoms. Initially nearly all atoms are transferred into one hyperfine sublevel ($|F, {m}_{F}〉=|2, 2〉$) by a double-resonance technique using laser optical pumping and rf transitions. Subsequently the other hyperfine sublevels can be populated selectively by an adiabatic high-frequency transition. The hyperfine sublevel populations are determined by laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy in a magnetic field.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.50.1759

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Applied Physics Letters•Nov 1, 1975•17 citations
A compact source which produces atomic alkali-metal beams in individual hyperfine sublevels has been developed. The methods are demonstrated with 23Na^{23}\mathrm{Na}23Na atoms. Initially nearly all atoms are transferred into one hyperfine sublevel (∣F,mF〉=∣2,2〉|F, {m}_{F}〉=|2, 2〉∣F,mF​〉=∣2,2〉) by a double-resonance technique using laser optical pumping and rf transitions. Subsequently the other hyperfine sublevels can be populated selectively by an adiabatic high-frequency transition. The hyperfine sublevel populations are determined by laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy in a magnetic field.
A scheme for concentrating a large fraction (\ensuremath{\sim}100%) of the alkali-metal atoms in an atomic vapor in any single magnetic sublevel of the ground state is developed. This is experimentally demonstrated in the 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb vapor. The atomic vapor is optically pumped to a high degree of spin polarization after which two radio-frequency \ensuremath{\pi} pulses are applied to transfer the atomic population from the (2,2) or (2,-2) (F,MF{\mathit{M}}_{\mathit{F}}MF​) state to the (2,0) sublevel of the ground state. The resulting distribution is diagnosed using a microwave field tuned to the hyperfine transition (6834 MHz).
The ground electronic state of even such simple atoms as those of alkali elements has the set of sublevels. These sublevels are hyperfine (HF) components and magnetic sublevels. The collisions with particles of nonmagnetic buffer gas or even with walls (when walls have proper coating) do not mix practically the populations of ground state HF sublevels, if the orbital moment of electrons in the ground state is equal to zero. Due to this reason these sublevels may be extremely long lived. Because of this, for instance, the so-called effects of optical orientation and optical pumping are apparent in atoms of alkali metals. The radiation can pump practically all the atoms (with which there is effective interaction) to a single HF component. In a situation in which optical pumping is a minor effect, the monochromatic absorption line consists of separate lines corresponding to intra-atomic transitions. The optical pumping is not significant, for example, if the radiation intensity is so low that now pumping between HF sublevels occurs in the time it takes the atom to traverse the light beam. Under the conditions of optical pumping and when other nonlinear effects are present, the absorption line profile can undergo considerable alteration. Many theoretical and experimental investigations have been done in the laser spectroscopy of resonant transitions of atoms (atoms of alkali metals) under the conditions of optical pumping within ground state HF structure. A characteristic feature of all such investigations is the velocity-selective excitation of absorbing atoms. Also, as a rule, the value of HF splitting is not very big in comparison to Doppler broadening in these experiments. Under such conditions, the absorption spectra consists of Doppler- broadened lines with nonlinear resonances, which emerge when two fields of different frequencies or different propagation directions are employed. When only one monochromatic traveling wave is employed, optical pumping leads to formation of a single smooth absorption line occupying a position between the resonant transitions frequencies associated with HF components. As HF splitting grows, the line profile remains smooth, its width is approximately equal to the size of the HF splitting. The strength of the optical pumping from one ground state HF component to another is greater for greater HF splitting in comparison to the Doppler width. In this regard, Cs and Rb are the most typical of the alkali atoms (the HF splitting exceeds the Doppler width by a factor close to 20). This is the qualitative picture of the absorption line profile (particularly for a monochromatic radiation) under the conditions of optical pumping between the HF sublevels of the electronic ground state, this qualitative picture had formed by now.
We describe optically pumping a beam of sodium atoms to >96% mS and >92% mS, mI state selection. (We have accurately measured the population of every mS, mI state in the optically pumped beam.) For the optical pumping both ground hyperfine states are pumped, using single-mode cw dye-laser radiation tuned to the 3S1/2–3P1/2 transition that is phase modulated in a LiTaO3 crystal to produce first-order sidebands at approximately the 1772-MHz hyperfine splitting of the ground state. The z-directed optical pumping is performed in a z-directed magnetic field of ~5 G. The state-selected atoms then move, in ~1 cm, into an ~200 G, z-directed field. The downstream probe laser beam is scanned through the 3S1/2 (mS, mI) → 3P3/2 (mS′, mI) transitions, which are spectroscopically resolved at 200 G, and the fluorescence intensities portray the residual populations in each of the eight 3S1/2 states.
The steady-state distribution of the populations of the hyperfine sublevels of the ground state of alkali atoms is calculated for the case in which the atoms are subjected to a spectrally selective optical pumping on /sup 2/S/sub 1//sub ///sub 2/--/sup 2/P/sub 1/2,3/2/ transitions and a simultaneous pumping by microwave fields which are at resonance with transitions in the hyperfine structure of the ground state, F-italic = 2, M-italic/sub F-italic/ = +- 2, +- 1bold-arrow-left-rightF-italic = 1, M-italic/sub F-italic/ = +- 1. The addition of the microwave pumping is shown to substantially increase the population difference for the O--O transition in the hyperfine structure. During selective optical pumping of the F-italic = 1 level, the population inversion which can be achieved for the O--O transition is limited by the effect of population capture. This capture can be eliminated by using incoherent microwave fields. The quality factor of the O--O resonance is calculated as a function of the parameters of the pump. The outlook for the use of composite pumping in frequency-stabilization systems is discussed.
In this paper we propose a pumping scheme to concentrate nearly all the atoms of an alkali-metal vapor into one of the ground-state Zeeman sublevels. We report theory and experiment for the case of 87Rb^{87}\text{R}\text{b}87Rb in a cell with buffer gas but the technique easily applies to other alkali-metal atoms. The pumping scheme consists of a suitable sequence of laser and microwave pulses after which a large fraction of atoms is transferred into the desired level. The efficiency of this technique depends mainly on the laser power and on the relaxation effects taking place inside the cell; in principle, more than 95% of the atoms can be prepared in a well-defined quantum state. Diagnostic of the resulting population distribution is made observing the free-induction decay signal at the output of a microwave cavity. This multistep laser-microwave pumping technique is particularly suited for compact vapor-cell frequency standards working in pulsed regime or in experiments where it is necessary to maintain the cylindrical symmetry of the experimental arrangement.