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Physical Review Letters

Measurement of a Long Electronic Spin Relaxation Time of Cesium Atoms in Superfluid Helium

T. Furukawa, Yukari Matsuo, A. Hatakeyama, Yoshimitsu Fukuyama, T. Kobayashi, H. Izumi, T. Shimoda

Published Mar 8, 2006• 24 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The longitudinal electronic spin relaxation time of Cs atoms optically polarized in superfluid helium (He II, 1.5 K) has been measured with special care to cope with a serious decrease in the number of Cs atoms in the observation region. This decrease, mainly caused by helium convection in introducing the atoms into He II by laser sputtering, was significantly reduced using a new atom implantation method. Combined with a careful correction for the number of atoms, we have determined the relaxation time to be 2.24(19) s or longer, roughly twice as long as that in solid He.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.96.095301

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The longitudinal electronic spin relaxation time of Cs atoms optically polarized in superfluid helium (He II, 1.5 K) has been measured with special care to cope with a serious decrease in the number of Cs atoms in the observation region. This decrease, mainly caused by helium convection in introducing the atoms into He II by laser sputtering, was significantly reduced using a new atom implantation method. Combined with a careful correction for the number of atoms, we have determined the relaxation time to be 2.24(19) s or longer, roughly twice as long as that in solid He.
By D1{\mathit{D}}_{1}D1​-line optical pumping of alkali-metal atoms (Cs and Rb) in superfluid helium (He II), we could achieve large spin polarization of the atoms in the ground states, more than 50% for both electron and nuclear spins, especially for the Cs atoms. The alkali-metal atoms were implanted into He II by laser sputtering. We detected optically the magnetic resonances between the ground-state Zeeman sublevels, and found that the g values and hyperfine constants in He II were the same as in vacuum within the experimental error. We discuss possible applications of these spin-polarized atoms in He II.
Properties of alkali atoms (mainly rubidium and cesium) in a cold helium gas have been extensively studied. Experiments are performed at temperatures down to 1.2 K using alkali-metal vapor cells containing a helium buffer gas, with alkali atoms driven from the cell walls by one of three loading methods: laser ablation, light-induced atom desorption, and spark discharge. For alkali atoms loaded into the cold helium gas, we have found that the relaxation time of the electronic spin of optically polarized rubidium atoms in the ground state is about a minute, much longer than that achieved in conventional vapor cells at room temperature and above. We have also spectroscopically investigated the interactions of excited alkali atoms with helium atoms, especially the formation of alkali–He exciplexes.
The relaxation of atomic polarization in buffer-gas-free, paraffin-coated cesium vapor cells is studied using a variation on Franzen's technique of ``relaxation in the dark'' [Franzen, Phys. Rev. 115 850 (1959)]. In the present experiment, narrow-band, circularly polarized pump light, resonant with the Cs D2 transition, orients atoms along a longitudinal magnetic field, and time-dependent optical rotation of linearly polarized probe light is measured to determine the relaxation rates of the atomic orientation of a particular hyperfine level. The change in relaxation rates during light-induced atomic desorption (LIAD) is studied. No significant change in the spin relaxation rate during LIAD is found beyond that expected from the faster rate of spin-exchange collisions due to the increase in Cs density.
At temperatures below 2.1 K, long-lived gaseous Rb atoms in glass cells have been generated with a simple method: irradiating the cells, containing 4He gas and Rb metal, with a cw laser. The obtained atomic Rb density ( approximately 10(8) cm(-3)) decreases with a 1/e time constant of about 10 s at 1.85 K. We have performed optical pumping of the Rb atoms and measured the longitudinal electronic spin relaxation time at 1.85 K as well. For processes (such as Rb-He collisions) which do not remove the atomic Rb from the vapor, this relaxation time is found to be about 60+/-15 s.
Spin relaxation times of the ground state of atomic cesium were measured by the use of optical pumping- and pulse-techniques. Relaxation times in benzene, toluene, o-, m-, p-xylene, and mesitylene are all dependent on temperature. They can be expressed as 1/ T 1 = A exp ( B / T ). From B values the binding energies between Cs atom and the aromatic molecules can be obtained: 0.082 eV (benzene), 0.103 eV (toluene), 0.154 eV (o-xylene), 0.125 eV (m-xylene), 0.171 eV (p-xylene) and, 0.162 eV (mesitylene). From A values, and by consideration of the molecular state of cesium-aromatic complex, it is inferred that the relaxation is caused by spin-orbit coupling, as was proposed by Bernheim for the case of relaxation due to collision with rare gas atoms. Comparison of three isomers of xylene revealed that the molecular electric dipole moment was ineffective for the relaxation.
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.