Investigation On Anti-relaxation Coating Of Atom Cell

In many quantum optical experiments, alkali atoms are usually choosed as a media to interact with laser beam. The polarization of alkali atom plays an important role in the field of precision measurementsuch as atomic clocks, atomic magnetometer, slow light, quantum memory. A long polarization lifetime becomes more important in these measurements due to relaxation mechanisms. Spin relaxation occurs naturally, several kinds of relaxation take place at the same time and affect atomic polarization lifetime together. In this paper, we try to use octadecyltrichlorosilane(OTS) as anti-relaxation coating and measure its quality.This paper is builded up by several parts. First of all,how to obtain atomic polarization. Optical pumping is one of the common means to realize polarization. Secondly, we describe several relaxation mechanisms and two methods to maintain atomic polarization (buffer gas and coating). Finally we make our choice—OTS "multilayer". Our procedure is adapted from previous work by Seltzer, and more woks are required in the future. We test the quality of OTS by performing a relaxation in the dark measurement, and the results have proved to be effective preliminarily. Since the theory is complex and it is difficult to explain the experimental phenomenon. Most of the results are obtained directly from experiments and explained semi-empirically.