Observation of polarized alkali atoms in experiments on optical orientation in a He–Rb and He-Cs mixture under conditions of a pulsed gas discharge

Abstract

It has been demonstrated that optical pumping of alkali atoms (rubidium and cesium) results to a highly efficient indirect optical orientation of metastable He (23S1) atoms. However, in an attempt to perform the inverse experiment (i.e. to receive spin-polarization of alkali atoms upon optical pumping of metastable helium atoms) the result was quite unexpected: the magnetic resonance signal of Cs or Rb atoms was very weak (several hundred times weaker compared to conventional optical pumping of helium in the presence of cesium (rubidium)). We propose an explanation for the unusually small ratio of the magnetic resonance signals from Cs (Rb) and metastable He atoms under condition of optical orientation of He atoms. Except of Cs atoms we are the first to have observed magnetic resonance signals from atoms of 85Rb and 87Rb isotopes when using the indirect optical orientation in conditions of helium-rubidium gas discharge plasma. It is shown that the anomaly in the amplitude ratios of the observed MR signals can be explained by the unidirectional action of three different factors (the presence of a large nuclear spin of alkali atoms, depolarization of alkali atoms between collisions, and spin exchange between atoms of rubidium isotopes (for the He-Rb system).