Abstract
Faraday rotation has become a powerful tool in a large variety of physics applications. Most prominently, Faraday rotation can be used in precision magnetometry. Here we report measurements of gyromagnetic Faraday rotation on a dense, hyperpolarized He3 gas target. Theoretical calculations predict the rotations of linearly polarized light due to the magnetization of spin-1/2 particles on the scale of 10-7 radians. To maximize the signal, a He3 target designed to use with a multipass cavity is combined with a sensitive apparatus for polarimetry that can detect optical rotations on the order of 10-8 radians. Although the expected results are well above the sensitivity for the given experimental conditions, no nuclear-spin-induced rotation was observed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 023831 |
| Journal | Physical Review A |
| Volume | 99 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 19 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work is partially supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Physics under Contract No. DE-FG02-99ER41101 and a research grant awarded to W.K. by the University of Kentucky. The authors would like to thank Todd Averett for filling the helium-3 cell and the determination of the gas density, and they would like to thank Susan Gardner for useful discussions. W.K. would like to express special thanks to the Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics (MITP) for its hospitality and support.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 American Physical Society.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics