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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

Efficient Hyperfine Optical Pumping of RB Atoms in Miniaturized Vapor Cells

Eliran Talker, Pankaj Arora, Mark Dikopoltsev, Uriel Levy

Published May 5, 2019• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate the positive role of buffer gas in achieving highly efficient hyperfine-structure based optical pumping of Rubidium atoms in miniaturized vapor cells. At a pressure of 40 Torr, pumping efficiency of 85% is achieved.
DOI
10.23919/cleo.2019.8750417

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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics•May 5, 2019•0 citations
Abstract We demonstrate both numerically and experimentally the important role of buffer gas in achieving optical isolator based on efficient hyperfine-structure optical pumping of Rubidium (87Rb) atoms in miniaturized vapor cells. It is observed that the increase in the buffer gas pressure allows achieving highly efficient optical pumping. Specifically, at a buffer gas pressure of 40 Torr, it is possible to pump about 85% of the atoms out of the pumped state into the other ground state. While optical pumping has been reported for conventional centimeter-scale cells, we show that in miniaturized cells the role of buffer gas is crucial, as the higher collision rate with the walls diminishes the effect of optical pumping, posing a stringent limitation on the applicability of optical pumping in miniaturized systems. Following the results reported herein, we demonstrate an optical isolator with isolation ratio better than 20 dB at a relatively low temperature of about 80 °C, and with a low magnetic field (∼800 Gauss). The obtained results provide another step forward in the quest for miniaturizing quantum devices. The demonstrated device shows that such miniaturized vapor cells can be considered for applications such as all-optical switching, optical quantum memory, frequency references, and magnetometry to name a few.
We have made a systematic study of rubidium optical pumping in a simple cylindrical cell geometry with a high-power 10W10\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{W}10W diode laser array, low magnetic fields, and buffer-gas pressures of less than 50torr50\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\text{torr}50torr. We have determined rubidium polarizations experimentally for H2{\mathrm{H}}_{2}H2​, N2{\mathrm{N}}_{2}N2​, He, and Ar buffer gases, with Rb number densities from ${10}^{12}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\text{to}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{10}^{13}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$. Comparison to a relatively simple optical pumping model allows us to extract useful information about radiation trapping and quenching effects.
The hyperfine relaxation of a population difference, produced by optical pumping, between the F=1F=1F=1 mF=0{m}_{F}=0mF​=0 and F=2F=2F=2 mF=0{m}_{F}=0mF​=0 energy levels of the ground state of Rb87{\mathrm{Rb}}^{87}Rb87, has been studied in cells containing neon, argon, helium, or krypton as a buffer gas. The relaxation times T1{T}_{1}T1​ and T2{T}_{2}T2​ have been measured as a function of the rubidium vapor pressure in the cell. The relaxation rate due to spin exchange in Rb87{\mathrm{Rb}}^{87}Rb87-Rb87{\mathrm{Rb}}^{87}Rb87 collisions has been found equal to 65 ${\mathrm{sec}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ at 44\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}C, and the diffusion coefficients of Rb87{\mathrm{Rb}}^{87}Rb87 atoms in He, Ne, and Ar evaluated as 0.6, 0.31, and 0.22 cm2{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}cm2 ${\mathrm{sec}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, respectively. The cross section for Rb87{\mathrm{Rb}}^{87}Rb87-Ne and Rb87{\mathrm{Rb}}^{87}Rb87-Ar collisions are found to be 1.6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\ensuremath{-}22}$ cm2{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}cm2 and 9\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\ensuremath{-}22}$ cm2{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}cm2. These values are in general agreement with values previously obtained by other methods. The extrapolated values of 1T2\frac{1}{{T}_{2}}T2​1​ for zero vapor pressure of rubidium are 185, 237, and 318 ${\mathrm{sec}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ for Ne, He, or Ar, respectively. Relaxations by the pumping light or by the magnetic field inhomogeneities are also discussed.