Spin noise sets fundamental limits to the attainable precision of measurements using spin-polarized atomic vapors and therefore merits a careful study. On the other hand, it has been recently shown that spin noise contains useful physical information about the atomic system, otherwise accessible via magnetic-resonancetype experiments. We here show in yet another manifestation of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, that spin noise reveals information on the spin-coherence dissipation properties of the atomic system, described by 1 / T 2 , the transverse spin-relaxation rate. We present the high-resolution measurements of spin noise at a low magnetic field, leading to an accurate comparison of the extracted relaxation rates with the ones inferred from traditional magnetic-resonance-type measurements in optical pumping experiments.

Magnetic-sensitive radical-ion-pair reactions are understood to underlie the biochemical magnetic compass used by avian species for navigation. Recent experiments have provided growing evidence for the radical-ion-pair magnetoreception mechanism, while recent theoretical advances have unravelled the quantum nature of radical-ion-pair reactions, which were shown to manifest a host of quantum-information-science concepts and effects, like quantum measurement, quantum jumps and the quantum Zeno effect. We here show that the quantum Zeno effect provides for the robustness of the avian compass mechanism, and immunizes its magnetic and angular sensitivity against the deleterious and molecule-specific exchange and dipolar interactions.

The physics of spin exchange collisions have fueled several discoveries in fundamental physics and numerous applications in medical imaging and nuclear magnetic resonance. We here report on the experimental observation and theoretical justification of spin-noise exchange, the transfer of spinnoise from one atomic species to another. The signature of spin-noise exchange is an increase of the total spin-noise power at low magnetic fields, on the order of 1 mG, where the two-species spin-noise resonances overlap. The underlying physical mechanism is the two-species spin-noise correlation induced by spin-exchange collisions.

Laser spectroscopy of atoms confined in vapor cells can be strongly affected by the presence of background gases. A significant source of vacuum contamination is the permeation of gases such as helium (He) through the walls of the cell. Aluminosilicate glass (ASG) is a material with a helium permeation rate that is many orders of magnitude lower than borosilicate glass, which is commonly used for cell fabrication. We have identified a suitable source of ASG that is fabricated in wafer form and can be anodically bonded to silicon. We have fabricated chip-scale alkali vapor cells using this glass for the windows and we have measured the helium permeation rate using the pressure shift of the hyperfine clock transition. We demonstrate micro fabricated cells with He permeation rates at least three orders of magnitude lower than that of cells made with borosilicate glass at room temperature. Such cells may be useful in compact vapor-cell atomic clocks and as a micro fabricated platform suitable for the generation of cold atom samples.