Production of highly spin-polarized atomic hydrogen and deuterium by spin-exchange optical pumping

Abstract

We have produced highly spin-polarized atomic hydrogen by spin-exchange optical pumping. A tunable ring dye laser is used to polarize rubidium atoms by optical pumping. The cell containing the rubidium vapor is coated with paraffin in order to reduce spin relaxation due to wall collisions. Hydrogen gas is dissociated in an inductive discharge and flows continuously through the cell, in which the hydrogen atoms are polarized by spin-exchange collisions with the polarized rubidium atoms. Atomic-hydrogen polarization as high as 2〈${\mathit{J}}_{\mathit{z}}$ ${\mathrm{〉}}_{\mathrm{H}}$=0.72(6) has been observed, which is the highest polarization yet produced by this method. However, the rubidium polarization may be limited to this value due to radiation trapping at higher rubidium densities. The spin-relaxation rate of atomic hydrogen on a paraffin-coated cell is also measured and corresponds to about 7600 wall bounces between wall relaxation.