The hyperfine Paschen-Back Faraday effect

Zentile, Mark A.; Andrews, Rebecca; Weller, Lee; Knappe, Svenja; Adams, Charles S.; Hughes, Ifan G.

Abstract

We investigate experimentally and theoretically the Faraday effect in an atomic medium in the hyperfine Paschen–Back regime, where the Zeeman interaction is larger than the hyperfine splitting. We use a small permanent magnet and a micro-fabricated vapour cell, giving magnetic fields of the order of a tesla. We show that for low absorption and small rotation angles, the refractive index is well approximated by the Faraday rotation signal, giving a simple way to measure the atomic refractive index. Fitting to the atomic spectra, we achieve magnetic field sensitivity at the 10−4 level. Finally we note that the Faraday signal shows zero crossings which can be used as temperature insensitive error signals for laser frequency stabilization at large detuning. The theoretical sensitivity for 87Rb is found to be ~40 kHz °C−1.

Citation

Zentile, M. A., Andrews, R., Weller, L., Knappe, S., Adams, C. S., & Hughes, I. G. (2014). The hyperfine Paschen-Back Faraday effect. Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 47(7), Article 075005. https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-4075/47/7/075005

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Mar 26, 2014
• Deposit Date: Dec 2, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 10, 2014
• Journal: Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
• Print ISSN: 0953-4075
• Electronic ISSN: 1361-6455
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 47
• Issue: 7
• Article Number: 075005
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-4075/47/7/075005
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1443860