We report nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments on 131Xe (I=3/2) gas-phase atoms which exhibit nuclear quadrupole interaction with the surface of the sample cell. Nuclear quadrupole coupling constants and quadrupole relaxation rates are obtained from the time-domain signal of the freely precessing nuclear magnetization in weak magnetic fields. The nuclear spin species is polarized by spin-exchange collisions with optically pumped ground-state spins of Rb gas atoms. The Rb atoms also present in the sample are used as a magnetometer to probe the free-induction decay of the nuclear-spin ensemble. The temperature dependence of both the effective quadrupole splittings and the relaxation rates are explained by a model for the surface interactions of a Xe atom adsorbed on the glass surface. The desorption is thermally activated with an activation energy of EA=0.12 eV. The surface diffusion of an adsorbed atom is characterized by an activation energy ED for thermally activated hopping between neighboring surface sites. Both energies enter the spectral density function governing wall-induced nuclear quadrupole relaxation. Our experimental results lead to the conclusion that they are on the same order of magnitude.

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