Measurements of the sticking time and sticking probability of Rb atoms on a polydimethylsiloxane coating

TL;DR

This study systematically measures the sticking probability and time of Rb atoms on PDMS coatings, revealing unexpectedly long sticking times likely due to bulk diffusion, with implications for resonance cell experiments.

Contribution

First measurement of Rb atom sticking probability and time on PDMS coatings, highlighting the role of bulk diffusion in atom-surface interactions.

Findings

Sticking probability of Rb on PDMS is 4.3×10^-5.

Sticking times are 22 μs and 49 μs for high and median viscosity PDMS.

Sticking times are about a million times longer than expected from adsorption energy.

Abstract

We present the results of a systematic study of Knudsen s flow of Rb atoms in cylindrical capillary cells coated with a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) compound. The purpose of the investigation is to determine the characterization of the coating in terms of the sticking probability and sticking time of Rb on the two types of coating of high and median viscosities. We report the measurement of the sticking probability of the Rb atom to the coating that is equal to 4.3 10 -5 and corresponds to the number of bounces of 2.3 10 4 at room temperature. These parameters are the same for the two kinds of PDMS used. We find that at room temperature the sticking times for high viscosity and median viscosity PDMS are 22 +- 3 mks and 49 +- 6 mks, respectively. These sticking times are about million times larger than the sticking time derived from the surface Rb atom adsorption energy and temperature of the coating. A tentative explanation of this surprising result, based on the bulk diffusion of the atoms that collide with the surface and penetrate inside of the coating, is proposed. The results can be important to many resonance cell experiments, such as the efficient magneto-optical trapping of rare elements or radioactive isotopes and in experiments on the light-induced drift effect.