Two-Photon Optical Pumping and Optical Pumping of Alkali - Noble Gas Excimers.

Raoul Gregory Vitale

Andrey E. Mironov, J. Gary Eden

Two color optical pumping of the Rb D2-laser(780nm) through the RbXe excimer has been realized. By simultaneously photoexciting the D2-blue(760nm) and the red satellite of the D1 transition, lasing efficiency is more than doubled.

W. Happer, E. Miron, S. Schaefer +3 more

The theory of spin exchange between optically pumped alkali-metal atoms and noble-gas nuclei is presented. Spin exchange with heavy noble gases is dominated by interactions in long-lived van der Waals molecules. The main spin interactions are assumed to be the spin-rotation interactions $\ensuremath{\gamma}\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{N}}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{S}}$ between the rotational angular momentum $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{N}}$ of the alkali-metal---noble-gas pair and the electron spin $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{S}}$ of the alkali-metal atom, and the contact hyperfine interaction $\ensuremath{\alpha}\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{K}}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{S}}$ between the nuclear spin $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{K}}$ of the noble-gas atom and the electron spin $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{S}}$. Arbitrary values for $K$ and for the nuclear spin $I$ of the alkali-metal atom are assumed. Precise formal expressions for spin transfer coefficients are given along with convenient approximations based on a perturbation expansion in powers of ${(\frac{\ensuremath{\alpha}}{\ensuremath{\gamma}N})}^{2}$, a quantity which has been shown to be small by experiment.

V. V. Semenov

T. Yabuzaki, Toru Ogawa

Thad G Walker, W. Happer

Spin-exchange optical pumping of mixtures of alkali-metal vapors and noble gases can be used to efficiently polarize the nuclei of the noble-gas atoms. Liters of noble gases at standard temperature and pressure and with nuclear spin polarizations of several tens of percent are now used in many applications. The authors describe the basic phenomena that govern the spin-exchange process and review the physics of angular momentum transfer and loss in optical pumping and spin-exchange collisions.