An Alkali-Vapor Cell with Metal Coated Windows for Efficient Application of an Electric Field

Abstract

We describe the implementation of a cylindrical T-shaped alkali-vapor cell for laser spectroscopy in the presence of a longitudinal electric field. The two windows are used as two electrodes of the high-voltage assembly, which is made possible by a metallic coating which entirely covers the inner and outer sides of the windows except for a central area to let the laser beams in and out of the cell. This allows very efficient application of the electric field, up to 2 kV/cm in a rather dense superheated vapor, even when significant photoemission takes place at the windows during pulsed laser irradiation. The body of the cell is made of sapphire or alumina ceramic to prevent large currents resulting from surface conduction observed in cesiated glass cells. The technique used to attach the monocrystalline sapphire windows to the cell body causes minimal stress birefringence in the windows. In addition, reflection losses at the windows can be made very small. The vapor cell operates with no buffer gas and has no magnetic part. The use of this kind of cell has resulted in an improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio in the measurement of Parity Violation in cesium vapor underway at ENS, Paris. The technique can be applied to other situations where a brazed assembly would give rise to unacceptably large birefringence in the windows.