Nanocell with a pressure-controlled Rb atomic vapor column thickness: Critical influence of the thickness on optical processes

A new device is designed: it consists of a nanocell (NC) filled with Rb atom vapors and placed in a vacuum chamber. When the pressure in the chamber changes in the range 0-1 atm, the NC thickness is smoothly varied in the range L = 140-1700 nm, which is caused by the pressure-induced deformation of thin garnet windows in the chamber. The pressure dependence has excellent reproducibility even after many hundreds of cycles of letting in of air and its complete pumping out from the chamber. The accuracy of setting required thickness L is much better than in the wedge-gap NCs to be moved mechanically that were used earlier. The processes of Faraday rotation (FR) of a polarization plane, resonance absorption, and fluorescence are studied using the D (1)-line narrow-band continuous laser radiation when the thickness changes from L = lambda/2 (398 nm) to L = 2 lambda (1590 nm) at a step lambda/2. The FR signal is shown to be maximal at L = lambda/2 and 3 lambda/2 and to have the minimum spectral width (ae60 MHz). At L = lambda and 2 lambda, the FR signal is minimal and has the maximum spectral width (ae200 MHz). The resonance absorption demonstrates the same oscillating behavior; however, the effect in the case of FR is much more pronounced. The oscillating effect is absent for resonance fluorescence: its spectral width and amplitude increase monotonically with L. The detected effects are explained and possible applications are noted.