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Annales de Physique

Optically pumped helium - a spin dependent probe

L. D. Schearer

Published Jan 1, 1985• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In the 25 years since the first optical pumping experiments in helium were reported, there have been an astonishing variety of applications. We describe briefly the use of spin-polarized helium to measure interplanetary magnetic fields, to probe spin-dependent nuclear and atomic collisions, to investigate surface properties of materials, and to study the quantum properties of a spin-polarized Fermi system.

DOI
10.1051/anphys:01985001006084500

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In the 25 years since the first optical pumping experiments in helium were reported, there have been an astonishing variety of applications. We describe briefly the use of spin-polarized helium to measure interplanetary magnetic fields, to probe spin-dependent nuclear and atomic collisions, to investigate surface properties of materials, and to study the quantum properties of a spin-polarized Fermi system.
We briefly review the field of spin polarized fluids. The study of spin polarized hydrogen was initially motivated by the hope to observed a Bose–Einstein condensation in a dilute gas. This goal has not yet been reached but, on the way, a lot of beautiful physics has been done, including atom–wall interactions studies and the observation of nuclear spin waves. Spin polarized helium can be studied in gas, liquid and solid phases. The two major polarization methods are fast melting of polarized solid or fast condensation of optically pumped helium three gas. We briefly discuss heat conductivity changes under the effect of nuclear spin polarization, sound velocity, and finally liquid–gas phase diagrams.
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.
Introduction Shortly after the inception of atomic magnetometry, alkali-vapor magnetometers were being used to measure the Earth's magnetic field to unprecedented precision. During the same era, Bell and Bloom first demonstrated all-optical atomic magnetometry through synchronous optical pumping [1] (see Chapters 1 and 6). In this approach, optical-pumping light is frequency- or amplitude-modulated at harmonics of the Larmor frequency ω L to generate a precessing spin polarization within an alkali vapor at finite magnetic field [2, 3]. Although this technique received considerable attention from the atomic physics community for its applicability to optical pumping experiments, Earth's-field alkali-vapor atomic magnetometers continued to rely on radiofrequency (RF) field excitation for several decades (see Chapter 4). Upon the advent of diode lasers addressing alkali and metastable helium transitions, synchronously pumped magnetometers experienced a revival beginning in the late 1980s. In recent years, such magnetometers have found applications in nuclear magnetic resonance detection [4] (see also Chapter 14), quantum control experiments [5], and chip-scale devices intended for spacecraft use [6] (see also Chapters 7 and 15). All-optical magnetometers possess several advantages over devices that employ RF coils. RF-driven magnetometers can suffer from cross-talk if two sensors are placed in close proximity, since the AC magnetic field driving resonance in one vapor cell can adversely affect the other. All-optical magnetometers are free from such interference. When operated in self-oscillating mode [7], RF-driven magnetometers require an added ±90° electronic phase shift in the feedback loop to counter the intrinsic phase shift between the RF field and the probe-beam modulation.
A spin-polarized triplet metastable helium (He*) beam has been used as a probe for surface magnetism, but changes in the spin state during scattering from a surface remain unclear. In the present study, we explored this issue by constructing an apparatus that allows us to direct a spin-polarized He* beam to a surface and measure the spin polarization of He* scattered from the surface. Magnetic hexapoles were used for both the beam polarization and the spin analysis. The results of the spin-dependent He* scattering experiments on clean Fe3O4{\mathrm{Fe}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{4}Fe3​O4​(100), H-terminated Fe3O4{\mathrm{Fe}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{4}Fe3​O4​(100), benzene-adsorbed Fe3O4{\mathrm{Fe}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{4}Fe3​O4​(100), and nonmagnetic Cu(100) surfaces indicated that, although the spin direction of He* was mostly preserved during scattering from these surfaces, spin-flop scattering of surviving He* occurred with a probability up to approximately 0.1. Our results showed that the survival probability was higher when the spins of He* and the Fe3O4{\mathrm{Fe}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{4}Fe3​O4​(100) film were parallel, which can be understood based on the lower He* resonance ionization rate for this spin orientation. Based on our findings, we estimate that a nonpolarized He* gas becomes 10% spin-polarized after a single collision with a clean Fe3O4{\mathrm{Fe}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{4}Fe3​O4​(100) surface.
Over the four year period covered by this grant, we have carried out extensive research involving polarized atoms and nuclei. Using laser optical pumping, high polarizations can be produced in alkali-metal vapors. From this starting point, angular momentum can be transferred to other atoms and nuclei through several different types of spin-exchange collisions. This powerful technique enables us to study a wide variety of spin interactions and spin related phenomena. Among the systems we work with are polarized nobel gases, which display extremely long spin-relaxation times that vary from several minutes to many weeks. The use of optical pumping and spin exchange has grown enormously over the past four years.