Abstract

In the past, interpretation of light-induced drift (LID) effects in alkali–noble gas mixtures in capillary cells has been severely complicated by surface interactions. As an example, the velocity of the optical piston, a spectacular manifestation of LID, is limited by adsorption–desorption processes to a value in the mm/s range.¹ Recently, a breakthrough has been made: by coating the capillary wall with paraffin the surface interaction has been completely eliminated leading to transport velocities in the m/s range and allowing a study of LID in its pure form.² Here we report the first measurements of the detuning and intensity dependence of the drift velocity in Na–noble gas mixtures and compare these to theory.

© 1987 Optical Society of America