Light induced atomic desorption for spectroscopy of optically thick Rb atomic vapor

Abstract

We report some preliminary results on experimental investigation of the potential of Light Induced Atomic Desorption (LIAD) applications for density control in antirelaxation coated cells and coherent spectroscopy. LIAD is a non-thermal process whereby atoms adsorbed on a surface are released under illumination. It is applied mostly to implementing optical atomic dispensers in the cases when high atomic density at low temperature is needed - for example, for loading atomic devices as atomic magnetometers, atomic clocks, atomic traps and their miniaturization. An advantage of the light control is that it is faster than the temperature control. More than an order of increase of the density with LIAD is obtained. Some peculiarities in the 780 nm absorption and fluorescence spectra registered in dense Rb vapor are registered. The absorption and fluorescence spectra in Rb vapors controlled by temperature and LIAD are compared.