INVESTIGATIONS OF THE OPTICAL DETECTION OF HYPERFINE RESONANCES IN ALKALI VAPORS

Preliminary experiments on treating cleaved lithium fluoride surfaces with Dri-Film (alkyl chloro silane) vapor to produce a surface that will inhibit spin relaxation were not successful as judged by the failure of water droplets to exhibit a large angle of contact on the treated surface. Other types of Dri-Film or other kinds of surfaces such as Teflon or wax have not yet been tried. It is intended to make direct re laxation measurements for oriented hydrogen atoms rather than rely on the water droplet test, which may not be suitable since LiF is very hygroscopic.