Raman and nuclear magnetic resonance investigation of alkali metal vapor interaction with alkene-based anti-relaxation coating
Abstract
The use of anti-relaxation coatings in alkali vapor cells yields substantial performance improvements compared to a bare glass surface by reducing the probability of spin relaxation in wall collisions by several orders of magnitude. Some of the most effective anti-relaxation coating materials are alpha-olefins, which (as in the case of more traditional paraffin coatings) must undergo a curing period after cell manufacturing in order to achieve the desired behavior. Until now, however, it has been unclear what physicochemical processes occur during cell curing, and how they may affect relevant cell properties. We present the results of nondestructive Raman-spectroscopy and magnetic-resonance investigations of the influence of alkali metal vapor (Cs or K) on an alpha-olefin, 1-nonadecene coating the inner surface of a glass cell. It was found that during the curing process, the alkali metal catalyzes migration of the carbon-carbon double bond, yielding a mixture of cis- and trans-2-nonadecene.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Mar 07, 2016
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4943123
Entities
People
- Dmitry Budker
- J. W. Blanchard
- Mikhail V Balabas
- Oleg Tretiak
- P. K. Olshin
- S. N. Smirnov
Organizations
- German Research Foundation
- Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
- National Science Foundation
- Russian Science Foundation
- Saint Petersburg State University
- University of California, Berkeley