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Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics

Laser Pumping of Alkali Atoms in Conditions of Conservation of the Nuclear Spin State in Collisions in a Gas Cell

К. А. Баранцев, A. N. Litvinov, Anatoly S. Pazgalev, Anton K. Vershovskii

Published May 1, 2022• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We analyze the polarization of the total angular momentum of alkali atoms in a gas cell with a buffer gas under pumping by monofrequency circularly polarized laser radiation. The mathematical model takes into account the motion of atoms and collisions preserving the nuclear spin under the chaotization of the angular momentum of the outer electron shell, total hyperfine structure, and the Zeeman structure. We analyze the stationary solution to equations for the density matrix of alkali atoms and the effect produced on them by the fraction of inelastic collision in which the quenching of atomic excitation takes place. We consider the contribution of various hyperfine states to the polarization of alkali atoms. The results are compared with the results of the model of instantaneous mixing of populations in the excited state.

DOI
10.1134/s1063776122050089

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Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters•Oct 1, 2018•25 citations
Abstract We analyze the polarization of the total angular momentum of alkali atoms in a gas cell with a buffer gas under pumping by monofrequency circularly polarized laser radiation. The mathematical model takes into account the motion of atoms and collisions preserving the nuclear spin under the chaotization of the angular momentum of the outer electron shell, total hyperfine structure, and the Zeeman structure. We analyze the stationary solution to equations for the density matrix of alkali atoms and the effect produced on them by the fraction of inelastic collision in which the quenching of atomic excitation takes place. We consider the contribution of various hyperfine states to the polarization of alkali atoms. The results are compared with the results of the model of instantaneous mixing of populations in the excited state.
Abstract A theory is developed for the optical pumping of alkali atoms with allowance for Zeeman and hyperfine structures and atomic motion in the model of instantaneous mixing between the Zeeman and hyperfine sublevels in an excited state. The appearance of the angular momentum in the 87Rb and 133Cs atoms that is opposite to the momentum of the photons pumping these atoms is studied. This effect is found to be most pronounced in the D2 line. The influence of the buffer gas pressure and the optical pumping intensity on the features of this effect is analyzed. The influence of the counterpolarization effect on the parameters of high-sensitivity quantum magnetometers is discussed.
We study the processes of optical pumping of alkali metal atoms in the gas cell with buffer gas for the quantum magnetometers. The value of pumped magnetic moment is strongly influenced by the collision effects. Collisions of alkali atoms with the buffer gas lead to partial destruction of the atomic quantum state. As a first approximation, we can assume that the state of electronic shell collapses, but the state of the nucleus is saved. This work is devoted to the description of this effect and its impact to the polarization of the magnetic moment.
We present a comprehensive theory of nuclear spin polarization of 3He{}^{3}\mathrm{He}3He and 129Xe{}^{129}\mathrm{Xe}129Xe gases by spin-exchange collisions with optically pumped alkali-metal vapors. The most important physical processes considered are (1) spin-conserving spin-exchange collisions between like or unlike alkali-metal atoms; (2) spin-destroying collisions of the alkali-metal atoms with each other and with buffer-gas atoms; (3) electron-nuclear spin-exchange collisions between alkali-metal atoms and 3He{}^{3}\mathrm{He}3He or 129Xe{}^{129}\mathrm{Xe}129Xe atoms; (4) spin interactions in van der Waals molecules consisting of a Xe atom bound to an alkali-metal atom; (5) optical pumping by laser photons; (6) spatial diffusion. The static magnetic field is assumed to be small enough that the nuclear spin of the alkali-metal atom is well coupled to the electron spin and the total spin is very nearly a good quantum number. Conditions appropriate for the production of large quantities of spin-polarized 3He{}^{3}\mathrm{He}3He or 129Xe{}^{129}\mathrm{Xe}129Xe gas are assumed, namely, atmospheres of gas pressure and nearly complete quenching of the optically excited alkali-metal atoms by collisions with N2{\mathrm{N}}_{2}N2​ or H2{\mathrm{H}}_{2}H2​ gas. Some of the more important results of this work are as follows: (1) Most of the pumping and relaxation processes are sudden with respect to the nuclear polarization. Consequently, the steady-state population distribution of alkali-metal atoms is well described by a spin temperature, whether the rate of spin-exchange collisions between alkali-metal atoms is large or small compared to the optical pumping rate or the collisional spin-relaxation rates. (2) The population distributions that characterize the response to sudden changes in the intensity of the pumping light are not described by a spin temperature, except in the limit of very rapid spin exchange. (3) Expressions given for the radio-frequency (rf) resonance linewidths and areas can be used to make reliable estimates of the local spin polarization of the alkali-metal atoms. (4) Diffusion effects for these high-pressure conditions are mainly limited to thin layers at the cell surface and at internal resonant surfaces generated by radio-frequency magnetic fields when the static magnetic field has substantial spatial inhomogeneities. The highly localized effects of diffusion at these surfaces are described with closed-form analytic functions instead of the spatial eigenmode expansions that are appropriate for lower-pressure cells.
The distribution of population in the ground-state sublevels of an optically pumped alkali-metal vapor has been found to be strongly dependent on the mechanism assumed responsible for relaxation. Two modes of optical pumping zero mixing and complete mixing in the excited state, and three modes of alkali relaxation, uniform, Zeeman, and electron randomization, are considered. Calculations of the sublevel relative populations are made in terms of experimentally measurable parameters for all six combinations of pumping and relaxation modes. Optical-pumping transient signals are then used to demonstrate that alkali relaxation due to wall collisions is of the low-frequency "Zeeman" variety, while relaxation due to alkali-rare-gas collisions takes place through randomization of the spin of the alkali valence electron. Equations for the rate of change of the electronic spin polarization are derived for all cases, and are found to be nonexponential, in contrast with the case of an alkali of zero nuclear spin.
A theory of excitation of a coherent population trapping resonance in hot alkali-metal atoms in a cell with buffer gas is constructed, taking into account the finite spectral width of two-component radiation, its vector properties, and the hyperfine and Zeeman structures of atoms. The propagation of intermode correlations in an optically dense gas cell is studied. It is found that in the case of partially correlated input modes, their correlation degree at the output can increase. This effect can be used for filtering the incoherent part of radiation.
The optical orientation of the angular momenta of alkali atoms in the presence of a buffer gas (molecular nitrogen) has been studied experimentally. It has been shown that, even at a low concentration of molecular nitrogen in the cell, the excitation of 133 Cs atoms from the lower hyperfine level with F = 3, which belongs to the ground 2 S 1/2 state, results in a larger amplitude of the magnetic resonance than the excitation from the hyperfine level with F = 4. This result has been theoretically explained under the assumption that the spin state of the alkali atomic nucleus does not change at collision with a nitrogen molecule, which is accompanied by a nonradiative transition of the alkali atom from the excited 2 P 1/2 state to the ground 2 S 1/2 state.