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arXiv · 1305.6727

Optical pumping of a lithium atomic beam for atom interferometry

Jonathan Gillot·Alexandre Gauguet·Matthias Büchner·Jacques Vigué
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Abstract

We apply optical pumping to prepare the lithium beam of our atom interferometer in a single hyperfine-Zeeman sublevel: we use two components of the D1-line for pumping the 7Li atoms in a dark state F,mF=+2 (or -2) sublevel. The optical pumping efficiency has been characterized by two techniques: state-selective laser atom deflection or magnetic dephasing of the atom interferometer signals. The first technique has not achieved a high sensitivity, because of a limited signal to noise ratio, but magnetic dephasing signals have shown that about 95% of the population has been transferred in the aimed sublevel, with similar results for three mean velocities of the atomic beam covering the range 744-1520m/s.

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Jonathan Gillot, Alexandre Gauguet, Matthias Büchner, Jacques Vigué. 2013-05-29. Optical pumping of a lithium atomic beam for atom interferometry. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd%2Fe2013-40259-2

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