Enhanced Atomic Desorption of 209 and 210 Francium from Organic Coating.

Controlled atomic desorption from organic Poly-DiMethylSiloxane coating is demonstrated for improving the loading efficiency of Fr magneto-optical traps. A three times increase in the cold atoms population is obtained with contact-less pulsed light-induced desorption, applied to different isotopes, either bosonic or fermionic, of Francium. A six times increase of Fr population is obtained with a desorption mechanism based on direct charge transfer from a triboelectric probe to the adatom-organic coating complex.

Magnetic-field-compensation optical vector magnetometer.

A concept for an optical magnetometer used for the measurement of magnitude and direction of a magnetic field (B-field) in two orthogonal directions is developed based on double scanning of a B-field to compensate the measured field to zero value, which is monitored by a resonant magneto-optical process in an unshielded atomic vapor cell. Implementation of the technique using the nonlinear Hanle effect on the D line of rubidium demonstrates viability and efficiency of the proposed concept. The ways to enhance characteristics of the suggested technique and optimize its performance, as well as the possible extension to three-axis magnetometry, are discussed.