Optical pumping of hyperfine states by light pulsed at the zeeman frequency

Claim 1

AN OPTICALLY PUMPED APPARATUS COMPRISING: A SYSTEM OF ATOMS IN A MAGNETIC FIELD HAVING QUANTIZED ZEEMAN ENERGY STATES IN SAID FIELD AND FURTHER HAVING HYPERFINE ENERGY STATES, AND CAPABLE OF UNDERGOING RESONANCE TRANSITIONS BETWEEN SUCH HYPERFINE STATES AT A HYPERFINE FREQUENCY, AND FURTHER CAPABLE OF UNDERGOING RESONANCE TRANSITIONS BETWEEN ZEEMAN STATES AT A ZEEMAN FREQUENCY, SAID ATOMS BEING CAPABLE OF ASSUMING A PREDOMINANT ENERGY STATE POPULATION ALIGNMENT IN RESPONSE TO ABSORPTION OF ENERGY AT SAID RESPECTIVELY HYPERFINE AND ZEEMAN FREQUENCIES; MEANS FOR PROVIDING RESONANCE RADIATION ALONG AN OPTICAL AXIS TO SAID ATOMS; MEANS FOR PULSING SUCH RADIATION AT THE ZEEMAN FREQUENCY OF THE ATOMS; MEANS FOR APPLYING A UNIDIRECTIONAL FIELD TO SAID ATOMS, SAID FIELD HAVING A MAGNETIC VECTOR THAT IS SUBSTANTIALLY PREPENDICULAR TO THE OPTICAL AXIS; MEANS FOR APPLYING A RADIO FREQUENCY FIELD TO SAID ATOMS AT THE HYPERFINE FREQUENCY OF SAID ATOMS, SAID RADIO FREQUENCY FIELD HAVING A MAGNETIC VECTOR SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL TO THE UNIDIRECTONAL FIELD; AND MEANS FOR DETECTING THE ALIGNMENT OF THE ATOMS THAT RESULT FROM THE PULSED RADIATION AND UNIDIRECTIONAL FIELD, AND THE RADIO FREQUENCY FIELD AT THE HYPERFINE FREQUENCY.