Selective reflection spectroscopy on the UV third-resonance line of Cs: Simultaneous probing of a van der Waals atom-surface interaction sensitive to far IR couplings and interatomic collisions

Selective reflection technique as a probe to monitor the growth of metallic thin film on dielectric surfaces

“…In SR experiments at the interface between alkali atoms and a dielectric surface, the experimental values obtained for C 3 are usually 1.5 − 2.0 larger than the theoretically expected one [15,16,31,32], which considers ideal dielectric surfaces. Indeed, the experiments are done with surface temperatures that are a few tens of degrees above the reservoir temperature in order to avoid alkali condensation on the surface.…”

Selective reflection spectroscopy at the interface between a calcium fluoride window and Cs vapour

“…In spite of spurious impurities that has degraded the vacuum conditions in the prototype cell, we show that the atom-surface vW interaction can be measured at the interface with the special window, hence validating the design of the construction. Such a cell is an important step to study the specific influence of the thermal emittance of fluoride windows on suitable atomic transitions, such as the Cs 6S 1/2 →8P 3/2 line [9]. In addition, it appears that the coupled analysis of the vW interaction exerted on two different windows, as extracted from a simultaneous recording, is a particularly robust method to estimate reliably the strength of the C 3 coefficient of the vW interaction, notably when stray effects can hinder the specific vW contribution.…”

“…Most of the experiments have employed an optical detection, hence requiring transparency of the surface (occasionally, a thin metal film provides a sufficient transparency [1,5]). To investigate these vW effects, we have developed for a long time Selective Reflection (SR) spectroscopy at a vapour interface [1,2,[6][7][8][9], a technique that typically probes the vapour at the interface on a depth λ/2π, with λ the optical irradiation wavelength, and more recently extended it to spectroscopy in a vapour nanocell [10]. Materials were limited to glass -fused silica-, sapphire and YAG (for nanocells, to YAG and sapphire only).…”

Selective reflection spectroscopy at a vapour calcium fluoride interface

“…SR spectroscopy on this line had already been investigated at the interface with a sapphire window, for which no surface temperature dependence is expected [6]. With the prototype cell and its impurities, we could simultaneously record the SR spectra on this transition for both windows.…”