Abstract

We describe optically pumping a beam of sodium atoms to >96% m_S and >92% m_S, m_I state selection. (We have accurately measured the population of every m_S, m_I state in the optically pumped beam.) For the optical pumping both ground hyperfine states are pumped, using single-mode cw dye-laser radiation tuned to the 3S_1/2–3P_1/2 transition that is phase modulated in a LiTaO₃ crystal to produce first-order sidebands at approximately the 1772-MHz hyperfine splitting of the ground state. The z-directed optical pumping is performed in a z-directed magnetic field of ~5 G. The state-selected atoms then move, in ~1 cm, into an ~200 G, z-directed field. The downstream probe laser beam is scanned through the 3S_1/2 (m_S, m_I) → 3P_3/2 (m_S′, m_I) transitions, which are spectroscopically resolved at 200 G, and the fluorescence intensities portray the residual populations in each of the eight 3S_1/2 states.

© 1991 Optical Society of America

Influence of adiabatic following and optical pumping in the production of an intense steady flux of slow atoms

V. S. Bagnato, C. Salomon, E. Marega, and S. C. Zilio
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 8(3) 497-501 (1991)

Coherent population trapping on the sodium D₁ line in high magnetic fields

R. Höller, F. Renzoni, L. Windholz, and J. H. Xu
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 14(9) 2221-2226 (1997)

Improving the sensitivity of optically pumped magnetometers by hyperfine repumping

V. Schultze, T. Scholtes, R. IJsselsteijn, and H.-G. Meyer
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 32(5) 730-736 (2015)

Effective collinear optical pumping for nuclear spin polarization

Sung Jong Park, Taeksu Shin, Ju Hahn Lee, Gi Dong Kim, and Yong Kyun Kim
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 31(10) 2278-2284 (2014)

Na₂ c Σ3g+→a Σ3u+ bound–free emission by electron-beam excitation

Da Xing, Ken-ichi Ueda, Qi Zhang, and Hiroshi Takuma
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 8(5) 917-922 (1991)