Observation of magneto-optical rotation effects in cold $^{87}$Rb atoms in an integrating sphere

We present a modified scheme for detection of the magneto-optical rotation (MOR) effect, where a linearly polarized laser field is interacting with cold $^{87}$Rb atoms in an integrating sphere. The rotation angle of the probe beams polarization plane is detected in the experiment. The results indicate that the biased magnetic field, the probe light intensity and detuning, and the cold atoms temperature are key parameters for the MOR effect. This scheme may improve the contrast of the rotation signal and provide an useful approach for high contrast cold atom clocks and magnetometers.

Measurement of Spatial Distribution of Cold Atoms in An Integrating Sphere

In this paper, we present an experiment to measure the spatial distribution of cold atoms in a ceramic integrating sphere. An quadrupole field is applied after the atoms are cooled by diffuse light produced in the ceramic integrating sphere, thus the shift of atomic magnetic sub-levels are position-dependent. We move the anti-Helmholtz coil horizontally while keeping the probe laser beam resonant with the cold atoms at the zero magnetic field. The absorption of the probe beam gives the number of cold atoms at different position. The results show that at the center of the integrating sphere, less atoms exist due to the leakage of diffuse light into the hole connecting to the vacuum pump. The method we developed in this paper is useful to detect cold atoms in a region where imaging is not possible.