Zeeman relaxation of cold atomic iron and nickel in collisions with [superscript 3] He
Name
Johnson-2010-Zeeman relaxation of.pdf
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Author(s)
Johnson, Cort
Newman, Bonna Kay
Brahms, Nathan
Doyle, John M.
Greytak, Thomas J.
Kleppner, Daniel
Alternative Title
Zeeman relaxation of cold atomic iron and nickel in collisions with He3
Date Issued
June 2010
Journal
Physical Review A
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Johnson, Cort et al. “Zeeman relaxation of cold atomic iron and nickel in collisions with^{3}He.” Physical Review A 81.6 (2010): 062706. © 2010 The American Physical Society.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We have measured the ratio γ of the diffusion cross section to the angular momentum reorientation cross section in the colliding Fe-3He and Ni-3He systems. Nickel (Ni) and iron (Fe) atoms are introduced via laser ablation into a cryogenically cooled experimental cell containing cold (<1 K) 3He buffer gas. Elastic collisions rapidly cool the translational temperature of the ablated atoms to the 3He temperature. γ is extracted by measuring the decays of the atomic Zeeman sublevels. For our experimental conditions, thermal energy is comparable to the Zeeman splitting. As a result, thermal excitations between Zeeman sublevels significantly impact the observed decay. To determine γ accurately, we introduce a model of Zeeman-state dynamics that includes thermal excitations. We find γNi-3He=5×103 and γFe-3He3[greater than and equal to]×103 at 0.75 K in a 0.8-T magnetic field. These measurements are interpreted in the context of submerged shell suppression of spin relaxation, as studied previously in transition metals and rare-earth-metal atoms [C. I. Hancox, S. C. Doret, M. T. Hummon, R. V. Krems, and J. M. Doyle, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 013201 (2005); C. I. Hancox, S. C. Doret, M. T. Hummon, L. Luo, and J. M. Doyle, Nature (London) 431, 281 (2004); A. Buchachenko, G. Chaasiski, and M. Szczniak, Eur. Phys. J. D 45, 147 (2007)].
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics
MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.81.062706
