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Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters

Study of the Interaction of Potassium Atoms with the Sapphire Surface with the Use of an Ultrathin Spectroscopic Cell

Armen D. Sargsyan, Goran Pichler, David G. Sarkisyan

Published Mar 1, 2022• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The effect of the dielectric surface on the 39K D1 line (Fg = 1, 2 → Fe = 1, 2 transitions) at nanometer distances has been experimentally studied for the first time. A nanocell that is filled with atomic potassium and has a wedge gap has been used to study the effect of atoms at distances of 50–800 nm from the technical sapphire window surface. At distances L < 100 nm from the sapphire surface, the van der Waals interaction strongly broadens atomic transitions and their frequencies are redshifted. The second derivative method applied to the absorption spectra of the nanocell has allowed the first measurement of the van der Waals interaction coefficient C3 = (1.2 ± 0.3) kHz μm3 for the 39K D1 line. It has been shown that the dipole–dipole interaction between 39K atoms results in the additional redshift at an increase in the density of atoms for the nanocell thickness L < 70 nm. The results obtained are important for the development of submicron devices containing free atoms.

DOI
10.1134/s0021364022100198

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Journal of Contemporary Physics (Armenian Academy of Sciences)•Oct 1, 2018•4 citations
The effect of the dielectric surface on the 39K D1 line (Fg = 1, 2 → Fe = 1, 2 transitions) at nanometer distances has been experimentally studied for the first time. A nanocell that is filled with atomic potassium and has a wedge gap has been used to study the effect of atoms at distances of 50–800 nm from the technical sapphire window surface. At distances L < 100 nm from the sapphire surface, the van der Waals interaction strongly broadens atomic transitions and their frequencies are redshifted. The second derivative method applied to the absorption spectra of the nanocell has allowed the first measurement of the van der Waals interaction coefficient C3 = (1.2 ± 0.3) kHz μm3 for the 39K D1 line. It has been shown that the dipole–dipole interaction between 39K atoms results in the additional redshift at an increase in the density of atoms for the nanocell thickness L < 70 nm. The results obtained are important for the development of submicron devices containing free atoms.
Abstract The influence of interaction of Cs atoms with a dielectric surface on position and shape of the hyperfine components of the D2 line in the case of nanometer-scale distance between the atom and the surface is investigated. Using a wedged nanocell enabled investigating the dependence of shift of all hyperfine components of the D2 line corresponding to Fg = 3 → Fe = 2, 3, 4 and Fg = 4 → Fe = 3, 4, 5 transitions on distance L between the atoms and the surface of a sapphire window in the interval from 50 to 400 nm. At L smaller than 100 nm, atomic transitions experience strong broadening due to van der Waals interaction and shift to lower frequencies (the red shift). Calculation of the second derivative (SD) of the absorption spectra of vapors in a nanocell allows spectrally resolving the hyperfine components of an atomic transition down to L ~ 50 nm and determining the van der Waals interaction coefficient C3. It is demonstrated that the spectrum experiences an additional red shift with increase in the density of atoms at L < 100 nm. In contrast, a blue shift occurs with increase in the density of atoms at relatively large distances between the atoms and the surface (L ~ 400 nm). The above results are important for development of miniature submicron-size devices containing alkali metals.
Abstract The Van der Waals effect (VW) in 39K atomic vapours was experimentally studied using a nanocell made of technical sapphire. At distances of less than 100 nm from the sapphire surface, a strong broadening of atomic transitions and their frequency shifts to the low-frequency region of the spectrum occur. The method of selective reflection (SR) of laser radiation from the sapphire window-atomic vapours boundary was used as a sub-Doppler method, which made it possible to measure the VW interaction coefficient C3 for the potassium atoms. It is shown that a change in the nanocell thickness from 100 to 50 nm results in a decrease in C3, as calculated from the “red” VW shift, i.e., the so-called “retardation” of the VW effect, which was predicted in theoretical works and experimentally observed. The obtained results are important for the development of miniature submicron devices containing atomic vapours.
The influence of the interaction of Cs atoms with a dielectric surface on the position and shape of the hyperfine components of the D2 line at nanometer-order distances between atoms and the surface is studied. The use of a nanocell with a wedge-shaped gap made it possible to study the dependence of the shifts of all the hyperfine components of the D2 line corresponding to the transitions Fg = 3- Fe = 2, 3, 4 and Fg = 4- Fe = 3, 4, 5, on the distance L between the atoms and the sapphire surface windows in the range of 50–400 nm. At L less than 100 nm, due to the van der Waals interaction, there is a strong broadening of atomic transitions and a shift of their frequencies to the low-frequency region of the spectrum (red shift). The calculation of the second derivative (SD) of the vapor absorption spectra in the nanocell allows one to spectrally resolve the hyperfine components of the atomic transition down to L about 50 nm and measure the coefficient of the van der Waals interaction C3. It is shown that, at L <100 nm, an additional red shift occurs with increasing atomic density, while at relatively large distances between atoms and the surface L about 400 nm, an increase in atomic density causes a blue shift of the atomic transition frequencies. The above results are important in the development of miniature submicron devices containing atomic vapor of alkali metal.
The van-der-Waals effect (VW) in 39K atomic vapours was experimentally studied using a nanocell made of technical sapphire. At distances of an atom from the sapphire surface of less than 100 nm, a strong broadening of atomic transitions and their frequency shifts to the low-frequency region of the spectrum occur. The method of selective reflection (SR) of laser radiation from the sapphire window-atomic vapours boundary was used as a sub-Doppler method, which made it possible to measure the VW interaction coefficient C3 for the potassium atoms. It was shown that a change in the nanocell thickness from 100 to 50 nm leads to a decrease in C3 calculated from the "red" VW shift, i.e. the so-called "retardation" of the VW effect, which was predicted in theoretical works, was experimentally registered. The obtained results are important in the development of miniature submicron devices containing atomic vapours.
Abstract We demonstrate that a method using the derivative of the selective reflection (SR) signal from a nanocell is a convenient and robust tool for atomic laser spectroscopy, achieving a nearly Doppler-free spectral resolution. The recorded linewidth of the signal from a potassium-filled cell, whose thickness ℓ lies in the range 350–500 nm, is 18 times smaller than the Doppler linewidth (∼900 MHz full width at half maximum) of potassium atoms. We also show experimentally a sign oscillation of the reflected signal’s derivative with a periodicity of λ /2 when ℓ varies from 190 to 1200 nm confirming the theoretical prediction. We report the first measurement of the van der Waals atom-surface interaction coefficient C 3 = 1.9 ± 0.3 kHz × μ m 3 of potassium 4 S 1 / 2 → 4 P 3 / 2 transitions with the nanocell’s sapphire windows, demonstrating the usefulness and convenience of the derivative of SR technique for cell thicknesses in the range 60–120 nm.
The effect of the van der Waals interaction of cesium atoms with the sapphire windows of a nanocell was experimentally investigated using the selective reflection process. The distance L between the windows varied in the range of 50–2000 nm and the nanocell was filled with the vapors of cesium atoms. For the Cs atoms (the transition 6 S 1/2 → 6 P 1/2 ), the C 3 coefficient of the van der Waals interaction with the sapphire windows of the nanocell is measured. It is shown that it is possible to determine the magnetic fields with the spatial resolution of 70 nm using the selective reflection spectrum and, consequently, both the homogeneous and highly gradient magnetic fields can be measured.