RELAXATION, GENERATION, AND DETECTION OF ZEEMAN COHERENCES IN AN OPTICALLY PUMPED HEAVY-ALKALI-METAL VAPOR

The relaxation and generation of multipole orientations in a heavy-alk ali-metal vapor in the presence of a weak static magnetic field are th eoretically studied both for populations and for Zeeman coherences by taking into account the effects on the evolution of the atomic density matrix of the relaxation processes (by alkali-atom-buffer-gas, alkali -atom-alkali-atom with spin exchange and alkali-atom-cell-wall collisi ons) and of the optical pumping with any light polarization and spectr al distribution. The dependence of the stationary-state multipole orie ntations on the pumping characteristic parameters is numerically analy zed. The detection process of these orientations is also studied.