Much has been learned about optically pumped alkali-metal vapors since Kastler's invention of optical pumping some 50 years ago, but the knowledge is scattered across the literature. The authors have collected the most important knowledge - experimental, theoretical and computational - as a reference for future researchers in this field. They concentrate on alkali-vapors in buffer gasesat temperatures not much higher than room temperature, since these gases are in the focus of current work to greatly miniaturize optically pumped devices. In connection with atomic clocks and magnetometers, both magnetic resonances produced by oscillating magnetic fields and coherent population resonances produced by modulated light are discussed. Sections on spin-exchange optical pumping of noble gas nuclei, mainly for use in medical imaging, and optical pumpingof cold atoms in traps follow. The presentation is complemented by many examples of modelling computation for optical pumped systems. The book makes extensive use of the density matrix and Liouville space to analyse the behaviour of optically pumped alkali-metal atoms. This approach is particularly well adapted to scientific computing packages like MATLAB, and therefore a CD providing codes on e.g. Coulomb wave functions of alkali-metal atoms or generic programs for optical-pumping calculations is included.
- ISBN: 978-3-527-40707-1
- Editorial: Wiley-VCH
- Encuadernacion: Cartoné
- Páginas: 330
- Fecha Publicación: 17/02/2010
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés