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Journal of Physics B Atomic and Molecular Physics

Alignment and orientation by optical pumping with pi polarised light

M Krainska-Miszczak

Published Feb 28, 1979• 20 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Optical pumping in 85 Rb with the pi polarised D 2 line has been analysed. Alignment of an atomic system in a zero magnetic field changes into orientation when the magnetic field partially decouples the I and J angular momenta in the excited state. Results of calculations have been confirmed qualitatively in a magnetic resonance experiment for the ground state of rubidium.

DOI
10.1088/0022-3700/12/4/007

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Abstract It is common for senior physics students at many universities to perform optical pumping experiments using a rubidium cell in an integrated apparatus. Such experiments provide an encounter with atomic structure in the context of a standard technique of modern atomic physics. Typically, students investigate radiofrequency resonances between Zeeman levels and measure hyperfine splitting. Despite its pivotal role in aligning the apparatus the so-called zero-field resonance is usually not investigated in such experiments. However it is instructive to look more closely at this phenomenon. We show that it is a consequence of a residual transverse magnetic field that is the result of the inability to align precisely the optical axis of the apparatus in the local N – S direction. The measured width and depth of the resonance-like minimum in transmission is found to be consistent with a very small relaxation rate for the rubidium atoms. In an appendix we show further that the measurements compare well with theory for the Hanle effect in the ground state for an arbitrary magnetic field direction relative to the optical axis of the experiment.

European Journal of Physics•Jul 10, 2020•0 citations
Optical pumping in 85 Rb with the pi polarised D 2 line has been analysed. Alignment of an atomic system in a zero magnetic field changes into orientation when the magnetic field partially decouples the I and J angular momenta in the excited state. Results of calculations have been confirmed qualitatively in a magnetic resonance experiment for the ground state of rubidium.
The optical pumping of Cs atoms with light of the D 1 line under magnetic resonance conditions is numerically calculated. This calculation is done to check the suggestion that an unexpectedly strong influence of the polarization of the pumping light on the resonance signals of transverse alignment, which we observed experimentally, is caused by the coupling between orientation and alignment by means of the magnetic field and/or the pumping light. This suggestion has been confirmed: upon circularly polarized pumping, the shape of the signal line of transverse alignment proved to be similar, as well as in the experiment, to the shape of the signal line of transverse orientation and was sharply different from the shape of the line of alignment observed upon linearly polarized pumping. For metastable 23 S 1 4He atoms, in accordance with the experimental data, the calculated shape of the signal line of transverse alignment is found to be independent of the polarization of the pumping light. The calculations also confirm the possibility of a reverse effect: the influence of alignment on orientation, which manifests itself in the occurrence of orientation upon pumping with unpolarized light under magnetic resonance conditions. For Cs atoms exposed to a field of ∼0.6 Oe, the largest contribution to this effect is yielded by the field coupling of orientation and alignment, whereas, for metastable 23 S 1 4He atoms, the largest contribution is made by the light coupling of these polarization moments.
We present results of a method for calculating optical pumping rates in Rb-87, as described in Eur. J. Phys 38, 045703 (2017) We use circularly polarized light to populate a stretched angular momentum state in the Fg=2 hyperfine structure level of the ground state. We include in the analysis an applied weak magnetic field. The method is shown to function well for the the studied system. Absolute scale level populations as functions of time, detuning, intensity, magnetic field and starting parameters are derived.
In an experiment with an optical pumping of 133Cs atoms in the 62 S 1/2 ground state, the line shape of the D 2f magnetic resonance signal for the transverse alignment component oscillating at a double frequency f of a radio-frequency (RF) magnetic field is found to strongly depend on the polarization of pumping radiation. On passage from a linearly polarized pumping light to a circularly polarized (CP) light with a sufficiently strong RF field the ordinary three-peak line with the highest central peak transforms into a two-peak line with a minimum at the center, so that the D 2f signal line resembles the M f signal line of a transverse orientation oscillating at the RF field frequency f. This suggests that the orientation (the first-rank polarization moment (PM)) arising upon CP pumping affects the alignment (the second-rank PM); i.e., the PMs of Cs atoms with different parities of their ranks become coupled. No influence of the polarization of a pumping radiation on the line shape of the D 2f signal is observed in a similar experiment with the 4He atoms in the 23 S 1 metastable state.
The mutual coupling between the polarization moments with ranks of different parity is theoretically considered. The manifestation of this mutual coupling has been revealed previously in experiments on magnetic resonance of optically oriented cesium atoms. The two well-known types of the coupling between the polarization moments are considered: the field coupling of these moments that occur due to the breaking of the hyperfine coupling between the electronic and nuclear moments of the alkali atom by the magnetic field and the light coupling of the moments due to the absorption of the pumping light by polarized atoms. The experimentally observed similarity in the shape of resonance signals of alignment and orientation upon circularly polarized pumping can be explained by the fact that, for alkali atoms, the generation of alignment by light at the wavelength of the D 1 line is of low efficiency. Therefore, alignment arises mainly from orientation by means of either the field or the light coupling of polarization moments. For metastable 23 S 1 4He atoms, no influence of the orientation on the alignment was observed because, in these atoms, the field coupling between the polarization moments is absent and the light coupling is not displayed because the generation of alignment by the circularly polarized pumping light is more efficient than the creation of alignment from orientation by means of light coupling of polarization moments.
Abstract It is common for senior physics students at many universities to perform optical pumping experiments using a rubidium cell in an integrated apparatus. Such experiments provide an encounter with atomic structure in the context of a standard technique of modern atomic physics. Typically, students investigate radiofrequency resonances between Zeeman levels and measure hyperfine splitting. Despite its pivotal role in aligning the apparatus the so-called zero-field resonance is usually not investigated in such experiments. However it is instructive to look more closely at this phenomenon. We show that it is a consequence of a residual transverse magnetic field that is the result of the inability to align precisely the optical axis of the apparatus in the local N – S direction. The measured width and depth of the resonance-like minimum in transmission is found to be consistent with a very small relaxation rate for the rubidium atoms. In an appendix we show further that the measurements compare well with theory for the Hanle effect in the ground state for an arbitrary magnetic field direction relative to the optical axis of the experiment.