Measurement of electron polarization of optically pumped sodium atoms

Abstract The electron-spin polarization of optically pumped sodium atoms for a polarized H − ion source was measured by a Faraday rotation method. This paper presents the theory of this scheme and some experimental results which have been obtained so far. When two pumping lasers were used, a sodium electron-spin polarization of about 90% was obtained at a target thickness of 1 × 10 13 n/cm 2 .