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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Linear and nonlinear coherence transfer of resonant nuclear-spin-dressed effect via metastability-exchange collisions

Sheng Li, Yuanzhi Zhan, Xiang Peng, Jingbiao Chen, Hong Mei Guo

Published Dec 19, 2019• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We present a systematic analysis to explain the observed magnetic resonance spectrum with three or five peaks spaced at Rabi frequency when the metastable 3 He atoms are probed with a transverse circularly or linearly polarized 1083 nm laser beam, respectively. The resonance signals are generated in the ground state of 3 He atoms, dressed by a resonant magnetic field, and transferred to the metastable state by collisions. The triplet spectrum is thought to be the result of the linear coupling between the metastable state and the ground state, while the quintuplet is thought to be that of the nonlinear coupling, and indicates that higher-order atomic polarization is created during the atomic collisions. More features of the magnetic resonance signals are investigated.

DOI
10.1088/1361-6455/ab63e7

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Journal of Physics Conference Series•Sep 7, 2015•0 citations
Abstract We present a systematic analysis to explain the observed magnetic resonance spectrum with three or five peaks spaced at Rabi frequency when the metastable 3 He atoms are probed with a transverse circularly or linearly polarized 1083 nm laser beam, respectively. The resonance signals are generated in the ground state of 3 He atoms, dressed by a resonant magnetic field, and transferred to the metastable state by collisions. The triplet spectrum is thought to be the result of the linear coupling between the metastable state and the ground state, while the quintuplet is thought to be that of the nonlinear coupling, and indicates that higher-order atomic polarization is created during the atomic collisions. More features of the magnetic resonance signals are investigated.
We study the dressed states of 3He atoms and experimentally observe the Mollow triplet (MT) induced with an ultra-low-frequency (ULF) oscillating magnetic field as low as 4 Hz. The ULF MT signatures from the ground states of 3He atoms are transferred to the metastable states by metastability-exchange collisions (MECs) and measured optically, which demonstrates 2 s coherence time in the dressed ground states. The result shows the possibility of ULF magnetic field amplitude measurement and a new scheme for optical frequency modulation.
Metastability-exchange collisions (MECs) lie at the heart of metastability-exchange optical pumping (MEOP) in 3He, enabling the transfer of polarization from the metastable state to the ground state, as well as the optical detection of nuclear magnetic resonance. Leveraging MECs, optically pumped 3He nuclear magnetometers have been developed since the earliest demonstrations of MEOP. However, it also induces an additional frequency shift and relaxation of the nuclear spin precession, thereby limiting the sensitivity of the magnetometer. In this work, we identify a new source of frequency shift and relaxation in the 3He nuclear spin, arising from the light shift. This effect arises from an MEC-mediated interaction between light and the nucleon spin. We develop a theoretical model to describe this light-induced effect and highlight its significance in low magnetic fields. This effect is experimentally demonstrated, and its dependence on various parameters -- including magnetic field strength, light intensity, and wavelength -- is investigated. Our result provides a better understanding of the frequency shift and relaxation of 3He spin precession under MEOP conditions. Moreover, our experiment reveals an MEC-mediated coupling between the 3He nuclear spin and light, which may indicate the feasibility of MEC-assisted optical manipulation of 3He nuclear spins at the quantum level, as proposed in several theoretical schemes.
In spin-related fundamental researches, there have been considerable interests in the transfer of microscopic orders between magnetic sublevels of different kinds of atoms. As for gaseous atomic systems, collisional transfer of spin polarization from optically pumped atoms A to atoms B is attained through spin exchange collisions. So far many experiments have been reported on the transfer of longitudinal spin polarization created along a static magnetic field. Transfer of coherence, on the other hand,is possible only when the energy matching condition j!A !Bj < is satisfied, where !A and !B are the Larmor frequencies of atoms A and B, and the line width. This is the reason why transfer of spin polarization precessing around the static magnetic field has not been observed except for a few experiments; The coherence transfer has been observed in the experiments where the atoms are subjected to properly chosen rf magnetic fields. Recently, it has been reported that coherence transfer between different kinds of atoms is possible by using the light field which transversely pumps only one kind of atoms under properly chosen experimetal conditions. It has also been pointed out that, as for the system of Rb and K atoms, which happen to have the same gyro-magnetic ratio, the peculier distortion of the magnetic resonance signal line shapes observed in the collisionally pumped atoms can be explained by the spin exchange coupling between the resonant Rb and K atoms. It is suggested that the precessing spin polarization in Rb can be transferred to K atoms or vice versa, since their Zeeman splittings become equal in the hyperfine multiplets jF 1⁄4 1i and jF 1⁄4 2i of the ground state 2S1=2 with the same gyromagnetic ratio 1⁄4 2 700 kHz/G. The experimental apparatus of the present experiment is shematically shown in Fig. 1. In addition to a droplet of natural rubidium and potassium, the sample cell contains 50mbar Ar as a buffer gas. It is subjected to a static magnetic field of H0 1⁄4 0:786G along the z axis and irradiated transversely to the field by a light beam from a GaAlAs laser A (output power = 10mW, beam diameter = 1mm). It is left-handed circularly polarized and tuned to the Rb absorption lines (S1=2, F 1⁄4 1 ! P1=2, F 1⁄4 1 and 2) which are not resolved owing to the Doppler broadening. The intensity of the laser A is modulated by an AOM (acousto-optic-modulator) at the Larmor frequency !A 1⁄4 2 550 (1⁄4 700 0:786) kHz of Rb in a rectangular shape pulse. As mentioned above the precessing spin polarization in Rb can be transferred to K. The precessing spin polarization of Rb and that of K are detected from the Faraday rotations of the beams of probe lasers B ( 1⁄4 794 nm, output power = 3mW, beam diameter = 2mm) and C ( 1⁄4 769 nm, output power = 3mW, beam diameter = 2mm), respectively. The frequency of laser B is chosen to be a few GHz higher than the Rb absorption lines (S1=2, F 1⁄4 1 ! P1=2, F 1⁄4 1 and 2) to prevent the detection beam from destroying the polarization. Similarly, the frequency of laser C is chosen to be a few GHz higher than the K absorption lines (S1=2, F 1⁄4 1 and 2 ! P1=2, F 1⁄4 1 and 2) which are not resolved owing to the Doppler broadening. They are linearly polarized and counter-propagated against the pumping beam,making angles of about 1 to the pumping beam. In each case the transmitted light beam of probe laser passes through the analyzer which makes an angle 45 to the polarization of the incident beam,and then it is detected by a pin-photo diode. The signals are electronically averaged over a few hundred cycles. Figure 2(a) shows the typical examples of signals on the magnetizations M x and M B x of Rb and K, respectively, Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the experimetal apparatus. AOM, acoustooptic modulator; PD, pin-photo diode; P, polarizer; A, analyzer.
Abstract Highly polarized 3 He ensembles prepared by metastability-exchange optical pumping (MEOP) have been widely used in precision measurements and fundamental physics. Metastability-exchange (ME) collisions, serving as the basis of MEOP, are traditionally described in terms of atomic orientation, while the significant contributions of metastable alignment tensor at high polarization remain unexplored. In this work, we develop a linearized model under mean-field approximation to investigate alignment tensor effects in highly polarized 3 He , which originate from the metastable F = 3 / 2 manifold and are revealed through ME-induced relaxation and frequency shift. By means of free-induction-decay measurements, a pronounced dependence on nuclear polarization is experimentally observed in the response of the ground-state-metastable hybrid 3 He ensembles to the external magnetic field. Furthermore, after obtaining the characteristics of tensor-induced phenomena, we demonstrate good agreement between the experiment and the theory. This work advances the understanding of nuclear spin dynamics in highly polarized 3 He using MEOP. It further provides applications in systematic error correction of high-accuracy magnetometry, as well as in optimal protocol for the generation of nuclear spin-squeezed states.