Interrelationship between the polarization moments of different parity upon optical pumping of atoms under magnetic resonance conditions: III. Comparison of theory with experiment

• Published in: Optics and spectroscopy Vol. 102; no. 5; pp. 669 - 681
• Main Authors: Dovator, N. A., Okunevich, A. I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer Nature B.V 01.05.2007
• Subjects: Alignment; Circular polarization; Coupling; Light; Linear polarization; Magnetic resonance; Mathematical analysis; Optical pumping; Orientation
• ISSN: 0030-400X; 1562-6911
• DOI: 10.1134/S0030400X07050050

The optical pumping of Cs atoms with light of the D1 line under magnetic resonance conditions is numerically calculated. This calculation is done to check the suggestion that an unexpectedly strong influence of the polarization of the pumping light on the resonance signals of transverse alignment, which we observed experimentally, is caused by the coupling between orientation and alignment by means of the magnetic field and/or the pumping light. This suggestion has been confirmed: upon circularly polarized pumping, the shape of the signal line of transverse alignment proved to be similar, as well as in the experiment, to the shape of the signal line of transverse orientation and was sharply different from the shape of the line of alignment observed upon linearly polarized pumping. For metastable 23S14He atoms, in accordance with the experimental data, the calculated shape of the signal line of transverse alignment is found to be independent of the polarization of the pumping light. The calculations also confirm the possibility of a reverse effect: the influence of alignment on orientation, which manifests itself in the occurrence of orientation upon pumping with unpolarized light under magnetic resonance conditions. For Cs atoms exposed to a field of ∼0.6 Oe, the largest contribution to this effect is yielded by the field coupling of orientation and alignment, whereas, for metastable 23S14He atoms, the largest contribution is made by the light coupling of these polarization moments.