Non-negligible collisions of alkali atoms with background gas in buffer-gas-free cells coated with paraffin

Abstract

We measured the rate of velocity-changing collisions (VCCs) between alkali atoms and background gas in buffer-gas-free anti-relaxation-coated cells. The average VCC rate in paraffin-coated rubidium vapor cells prepared in this work was $1\times 10^6$ s${}^{-1}$, which corresponds to $\sim 1$ mm in the mean free path of rubidium atoms. This short mean free path indicates that the background gas is not negligible in the sense that alkali atoms do not travel freely between the cell walls. In addition, we found that a heating process known as "ripening" increases the VCC rate, and also confirmed that ripening improves the anti-relaxation performance of the coatings.

5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Experimental demonstration of quantum memory for light
• Investigation of Anti-Relaxation Coatings for Alkali-Metal Vapor Cells Using Surface Science Techniques

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Characterization of high-temperature performance of cesium vapor cells with anti-relaxation coating
• Quantum Dynamics of Collective Spin States in a Thermal Gas
• Scattering of an alkali atomic beam on anti-spin-relaxation-coatings
• Spectroscopic study of a diffusion-bonded sapphire cell for hot metal vapors
• Optical pumping and relaxation of atomic population in assorted conditions
• Calibration of Spin-Light Coupling by Coherently Induced Faraday Rotation
• Development of an electrodynamic balance to study single levitated particles exposed to alkali-metal vapor
• Measurement of the total spin angular momentum <Fz> of alkali-metal atoms