Cesium alignment produced by pumping with unpolarized light

Abstract

We demonstrate optical pumping on the four hyperfine components of the Cs D1 transition by unpolarized (UPL) resonant laser light. The evidence is based on the reduction of the absorption coefficients κ0 with increasing light power P in an uncoated Cs vapor cell with isotropic spin relaxation. For comparison we perform the same quantitative κ0(P) measurements with linearly-polarized light (LPL) and circularly-polarized light (CPL). We find that our previously published algebraic expressions give an excellent description of all experimentally recorded induced transparency signals. Based on this we can make reliable absolute predictions for the power dependence of the spin orientation and alignment produced by pumping with LPL, CPL and UPL.

Dual-Axis Hanle Magnetometer Based on Atomic Alignment with a Single Optical Access

“…However, a measurement of this component could be possible if the atoms were aligned in a direction transverse to → z (e.g., the propagation direction → k p ). Such steadystate alignment can be obtained in the very same optical scheme as described above if the pumping light is unpolarized [22,31]. Unpolarized light is a statistical mixture of all the possible polarizations; therefore, the steady-state alignment for a beam propagating along → z , taken as the quantization axis, is…”

“…This scheme relies not on atomic orientation but on atomic alignment (i.e., states with 3S 2 e − S 2 = 0). Atomic alignment can be created on any spin larger than 1/2 by pumping with linearly polarized light, the direction of alignment → e being that of the pump-light electric field → E 0 [21,22]. Breschi and Weis [23] recently studied the Hanle effect on aligned atoms placed in an arbitrarily oriented magnetic field and with a single optical beam.…”

Parametric resonance magnetometer based on elliptically polarized light yielding three-axis measurement with isotropic sensitivity

“…An atomic state with F > 1/2 can be pumped using circularly polarized light toward an oriented state, or, using linearly polarized light, toward an aligned state (i.e. a state with 〈3𝑆 𝑒 2 − 𝑆 2 〉 ≠ 0 where 𝑒 is the direction of the pump-light electric field 𝐸 ⃗ 0 [20]). Using alignment instead of orientation in a PRM (Fig.…”