Quadrupolar interaction induced frequency shift of 131Xe nuclear spins on the surface of silicon

TL;DR

This study investigates how silicon walls in micro-machined vapor cells induce a quadrupolar frequency shift in 131Xe nuclear spins, affecting the stability of atomic spin gyroscopes and providing insights into surface interactions.

Contribution

It provides the first measurement of the quadrupolar frequency shift of 131Xe caused by silicon surfaces and analyzes temperature dependence of spin relaxation and frequency shifts.

Findings

Measured the twisted angle of 131Xe spins at 29×10^-6 rad.

Determined the desorption energy of 131Xe from silicon as 0.009 eV.

Analyzed temperature effects on spin relaxation and frequency shifts.

Abstract

The combination of micro-machined technology with the Atomic Spin Gyroscope(ASG) devices could fabricated Chip Scale Atomic Spin Gyroscope(CASG). The core of the gyroscope is a micro-machined vapor cell which contains alkali metal and isotope enriched noble gases such as 129Xe and 131Xe. The quadrupolar frequency shift of 131Xe is key parameters which could affect the drift of the ASG and is related to the material of the cell in which they are contained. In micro machined technology, the typical utilized material is silicon. In this article, we studied the electric quadrupolar frequency shift of 131Xe atoms with the silicon wall of the micro-machined vapor cell. A cylinder micro-machined vapor cell is utilized in the experiment and a large part of the inner cell surface is composed of silicon material. We studied the temperature dependence of the 129Xe spin relaxation and 131Xe frequency shifts to evaluate the interaction of the nuclear spin with container wall and the alkali metal atoms. The results show that the average twisted angle of the 131Xe nuclear spins as they collide with the silicon wall is measured to be 29 *10^-6 rad. The desorption energy for the 131Xe nuclear spin to escape from the silicon surface is Esi = 0.009eV . This study could help to improve the bias stability of the CASG which is a key parameter for the gyroscope as well as may developes a method to study the surface property of various material.