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Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters

Selective reflection from Rb vapor in half- and quarter-wave cells: Features and possible applications

Armen D. Sargsyan, Emmanuel Klinger, Y. Pashayan-Leroy, Claude Leroy, A. Papoyan, David G. Sarkisyan

Published Aug 1, 2016• 25 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The features of the effect of selective reflection from rubidium vapor in a nanocell with the thickness L ≈ λ/2 and L ≈ λ/4, where λ = 795 nm is the wavelength of laser radiation resonant with the Rb D 1 line, are studied. It is shown that, because of the behavior of the nanocell as a low-Q-factor Fabry–Pérot etalon, the sign of the derivative of the selective reflection spectra changes near L ≈ λ/2 from negative at L > λ/2 to positive at L < λ/2. The simplicity of the experimental implementation, large amplitude, and sub-Doppler width (40MHz) of a detected signal at an atomic transition frequency are appropriate for applications in metrology and magnetometry. In particular, selective reflection from the nanocell is a convenient frequency marker of atomic transitions; in this case, the amplitudes of peaks are proportional to the transition probabilities. The remote optical monitoring of a magnetic field with a spatial resolution L = λ/4 ≈ 199 of nm is possible on the basis of the splitting of selective reflection peaks in a strong magnetic field (up to 3 kG). A theoretical model describes well the experimental results.

DOI
10.1134/s002136401616013x

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The features of the effect of selective reflection from rubidium vapor in a nanocell with the thickness L ≈ λ/2 and L ≈ λ/4, where λ = 795 nm is the wavelength of laser radiation resonant with the Rb D 1 line, are studied. It is shown that, because of the behavior of the nanocell as a low-Q-factor Fabry–Pérot etalon, the sign of the derivative of the selective reflection spectra changes near L ≈ λ/2 from negative at L > λ/2 to positive at L < λ/2. The simplicity of the experimental implementation, large amplitude, and sub-Doppler width (40MHz) of a detected signal at an atomic transition frequency are appropriate for applications in metrology and magnetometry. In particular, selective reflection from the nanocell is a convenient frequency marker of atomic transitions; in this case, the amplitudes of peaks are proportional to the transition probabilities. The remote optical monitoring of a magnetic field with a spatial resolution L = λ/4 ≈ 199 of nm is possible on the basis of the splitting of selective reflection peaks in a strong magnetic field (up to 3 kG). A theoretical model describes well the experimental results.
We studied selective reflection (SR) of laser radiation from a window of a nanocell with thickness L ~ λ 1,2 /2 filled with Rb and Cs atoms, where λ 1 = 780 nm and λ 2 = 852 nm are the wavelengths resonant with the D 2 laser lines for Rb and Cs, respectively. It is demonstrated that the negative derivative of the SR signal profile for L > λ /2 changes to the positive one for L < λ /2. It is shown that the real-time formation of the SR signal profile derivative (SRD) with the spectral width 30–40 MHz and located at the atomic transition is, in particular, a convenient frequency marker of D 2 transitions in Rb and Cs. The amplitudes of SRD signals are proportional to the atomic transition probabilities. A comparison with the known saturated absorption (SA) method demonstrated a number of advantages, such as the absence of cross-over resonances in the SRD spectrum, the simplicity of realization, a low required power, etc. An SRD frequency marker also operates in the presence of the Ne buffer gas at a pressure of 6 Torr, which allowed us to determine the Ne–Rb collisional broadening, whereas the SA method is already inapplicable at buffer gas pressures above 0.1 Torr. The realization simplicity makes the SRD method a convenient tool for atomic spectroscopy. Our theoretical model well describes the SRD signal.
The rotation of the radiation polarization plane in a longitudinal magnetic field (Faraday effect) on the D 1 line in atomic Rb vapor has been studied with the use of a nanocell with the thickness L varying in the range of 100–900 nm. It has been shown that an important parameter is the ratio L/λ, where λ = 795 nm is the wavelength of laser radiation resonant with the D 1 line. The best parameters of the signal of rotation of the radiation polarization plane have been obtained at the thickness L = λ/2 = 397.5 nm. The fabricated nanocell had a large region with such a thickness. The spectral width of the signal reached at the thickness L = 397.5 nm is approximately 30 MHz, which is much smaller than the spectral width (≈ 500 MHz) reached with ordinary cells with a thickness in the range of 1–100 mm. The parameters of the Faraday rotation signal have been studied as functions of the temperature of the nanocell, the laser power, and the magnetic field strength. The signal has been reliably detected at the laser power P L ≥ 1 μW, magnetic field strength B ≥ 0.5 G, and the temperature of the nanocell T ≥ 100°C. It has been shown that the maximum rotation angle of the polarization plane in the longitudinal magnetic field is reached on the F g = 3 → F e = 2 transition of the 85Rb atom. The spectral profile of the Faraday rotation signal has a specific shape with a sharp peak, which promotes its applications. In particular, Rb atomic transitions in high magnetic fields about 1000 G are split into a large number of components, which are completely spectrally resolved and allow the study of the behavior of an individual transition.
It has been experimentally demonstrated that the use of the effect of significant narrowing of the fluorescence spectrum from a nanocell that contains a column of atomic Rb vapor with a thickness of L = 0.5λ (where λ = 794 nm is the wavelength of laser radiation, whose frequency is resonant with the atomic transition of the D 1 line of Rb) and the application of narrowband diode lasers allow the spectral separation and investigation of changes in probabilities of optical atomic transitions between levels of the hyperfine structure of the D 1 line of 87Rb and 85Rb atoms in external magnetic fields of 10–2500 Gs (for example, for one of transitions, the probability increases ∼17 times). Small column thicknesses (∼390 nm) allow the application of permanent magnets, which facilitates significantly the creation of strong magnetic fields. Experimental results are in a good agreement with the theoretical values. The advantages of this method over other existing methods are noted. The results obtained show that a magnetometer with a local spatial resolution of ∼390 nm can be created based on a nanocell with the column thickness L = 0.5λ. This result is important for mapping strongly inhomogeneous magnetic fields.
Sub-Doppler nature of atomic spectra in alkali metal vapor cells of nanometric thickness L (nanocells) allows one to study peculiarities of magneto-optical processes, which occur in a magnetic field for the case when L is of the order of λ (λ is a laser resonant wavelength). We particularly address the issues of practical implementation of the studied processes. The following results are presented. i) A "λ-Zeeman technique" exploiting velocity-selective optical pumping resonances in L = λ Rb cell placed in a B-field, which allows direct determination frequency shifts and modification of transition probabilities of individual Zeeman transitions in magnetic field and is applicable for development of wide-range (~ 0.1 - 1000 mT) optical magnetometers and tunable frequency reference. ii) A technique for locking the laser radiation frequency, B-field-tunable in ~ 500 MHz range, which is based on selective reflection of a circularly-polarized laser beam from Rb vapor cell with thickness L ≈ λ/2.
On an example of the D 2 -line of the Rb atoms the work of the frequency reference of atomic transitions is demonstrated, based on the application of the spectrum of a selective reflectance (SR) from the boundary of atom vapors with the use of nano-cell (NC) with the thickness L ~ λ /2, where λ is the laser wavelength equal to 780 nm. When changing the thickness of the nano-cell near the thickness L ~ λ /2, we observe the inversion of sign of the SR slope profile which is positive when L < λ /2 and negative when L > λ /2. In the case when the incidence angle of the laser beam on the surface of the nano-cell is close to the normal, in real-time it is possible to form the derivative of the SR which represents a resonance peak with ~35 MHz spectral linewidth and located at the atomic transition. The phenomenon of oscillation of the sign of slope while changing the nano-cell thickness from L ~ λ /2 up to L ~ 3/2 λ is demonstrated. The practical application of the SR is noted.
Abstract The effect of selective reflection (SR) of laser radiation from the boundary of 87 Rb D 2 -line atomic vapors and a dielectric window was studied using a nanocell (NC) with a vapor column thickness of ~300 nm. The formation of an SR with a spectral width of 25 MHz, located on atomic transitions, is demonstrated. This is a record narrowing of the 670 MHz Doppler width by a factor of 27 using single-pass geometry. The SR signal reaches several percent of the intensity of its forming radiation, and the SR amplitude’s linear dependence is maintained up to 100 mW/cm 2 , which is almost two orders of magnitude greater than the saturation intensity of optical processes when using centimeter-long cells with atomic vapors. Such a high saturation intensity value is achieved by using the nanocell.