Optical pumping in rubidium-87 — Linear polarization on the (F g = 2 ↔ F e = 2) transition in the D2 line

We present results of a method for calculating optical pumping rates in 87 Rb, as described in [1]. We use linearly polarized light on the (F g = 2 ↔ F e = 2) transition to populate an angular momentum state in the F g = 2 hyperfine structure level of the ground state, with magnetic quantum number M g = 0 — that is a clock state. The open decay path to F g = 1 necessitates repumping light, and this is accordingly included in the calculation. The method is shown to function well for the studied system. Absolute scale level populations as functions of time, detunings, intensities and starting parameters are derived.