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Comparative study of alkali-vapour cells with alkane-, alkeneand 1-nonadecylbenzene-based antirelaxation wall coatings

M. V. Balabas, Oleg Tretiak

Published Dec 31, 2013• 10 citations

Abstract

The dependence of both longitudinal and transverse relaxation times of ground-state magnetic polarisation in alkali atoms on the coating temperature is experimentally studied for the first time in a rubidium-vapour cell with 1-nonadecylbenzene antirelaxation coating of inner walls. The comparison of these times with the relaxation times in a caesium-vapour cell with alkane wall coatings is presented. It is found that within the studied temperature range the transverse relaxation time decreases with increasing temperature of alkene and 1-nonadecylbenzene coatings. For the alkane coating such a dependence was not explicitly found. The longitudinal relaxation time begins to decrease in all cases when passing a certain critical temperature of the coating material. It is found that the unsaturated radical structure of the coating material molecules strongly affects its antirelaxation properties.

DOI: 10.1070/qe2013v043n12abeh015196

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We report the results of an experimental investigation of the longitudinal relaxation time T 1 of the electronic polarization of the ground state of potassium atoms in cells with an antirelaxation coating on the walls. Investigations were performed for a number of cells at temperature T =24°C. The maximum recorded relaxation times τ are 3.6, 4.3, and 5.2 s for cells with diameter D =50,75, and 100 nm, respectively. These are the longest longitudinal relaxation times ever recorded in coated cells. The transverse relaxation time was measured for these cells at the same temperature: T 2 =0.72,1.1, and 1.4 s, respectively.

An alkene-based antirelaxation coating for alkali-metal vapor cells exhibiting Zeeman relaxation times up to 77 s was recently identified by Balabas et al. The long relaxation times, two orders of magnitude longer than in paraffin- (alkane-) coated cells, motivate revisiting the question of what the mechanism is underlying wall-collision-induced relaxation and renew interest in applications of alkali-metal vapor cells to secondary frequency standards. We measure the width and frequency shift of the ground-state hyperfine $m{}_{F}=0\ensuremath{\rightarrow}m{}_{F}^{\ensuremath{'}}=0$ transition (clock resonance) in vapor cells with

{}^{85}

Rb and

{}^{87}

Rb atoms, with an alkene antirelaxation coating. We find that the frequency shift is slightly larger than for paraffin-coated cells and that the Zeeman linewidth scales linearly with the hyperfine frequency shift.

We present an experimental investigation of alkali atom vapor cells coated with a high quality anti-relaxation coating material based on alkenes. The prepared cells with single compound alkene based coating showed the longest spin relaxation times which have been measured up to now with room temperature vapor cells. Suggestions are made that chemical binding of a cesium atom and an alkene molecule by attack to the C=C bond plays a crucial role in such improvement of anti-relaxation coating quality.

We present an experimental investigation of alkali atom vapor cells coated with a high quality anti-relaxation coating material based on alkenes. The prepared cells with single compound alkene based coating showed the longest spin relaxation times which have been measured up to now with room temperature vapor cells. Suggestions are made that chemical binding of a cesium atom and an alkene molecule by attack to the C = C bond plays a crucial role in such improvement of anti-relaxation coating quality.

Antirelaxation surface coatings allow long spin relaxation times in alkali-metal cells without buffer gas, enabling faster diffusion of the alkali atoms throughout the cell and giving larger signals due to narrower optical linewidths. Effective coatings were previously unavailable for operation at temperatures above 80 °C. We demonstrate that octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) can allow potassium or rubidium atoms to experience hundreds of collisions with the cell surface before depolarizing, and that an OTS coating remains effective up to about 170 °C for both potassium and rubidium. We consider the experimental concerns of operating without buffer gas and with minimal quenching gas at high vapor density, studying the stricter need for effective quenching of excited atoms and deriving the optical rotation signal shape for atoms with resolved hyperfine structure in the spin-temperature regime. As an example of a high-temperature application of antirelaxation coated alkali vapor cells, we operate a spin-exchange relaxation-free atomic magnetometer with sensitivity of 6 fT/Hz and magnetic linewidth as narrow as 2 Hz.