Measurement of dwell times of spin polarized rubidium atoms on octadecyltrichlorosilane- and paraffin-coated surfaces

We report the measurement of dwell times of spin polarized Rb atoms on octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS)- and paraffin-coated surfaces. We find that at a cell temperature of 72 °C the dwell times for OTS- and paraffin-coated surfaces are 0.9±0.1 μs and 1.8±0.2 μs, respectively. Since the relaxation probability on paraffin is almost one order of magnitude smaller than that on OTS, the longer dwell time for paraffin indicates that the average strength of the interactions experienced by Rb atoms while they are inside paraffin is much weaker than while they are inside OTS.