It is common for senior physics students at many universities to perform optical pumping experiments using a rubidium cell in an integrated apparatus. Such experiments provide an encounter with atomic structure in the context of a standard technique of modern atomic physics. Typically, students investigate radiofrequency resonances between Zeeman levels and measure hyperfine splitting. Despite its pivotal role in aligning the apparatus the so-called zero-field resonance is usually not investigated in such experiments. However it is instructive to look more closely at this phenomenon. We show that it is a consequence of a residual transverse magnetic field that is the result of the inability to align precisely the optical axis of the apparatus in the local N – S direction. The measured width and depth of the resonance-like minimum in transmission is found to be consistent with a very small relaxation rate for the rubidium atoms. In an appendix we show further that th...

中文翻译：

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光泵浦实验中的零场共振

在许多大学中，高级物理学生通常在集成设备中使用a电池进行光泵浦实验。这样的实验在现代原子物理学的标准技术的背景下提供了与原子结构的相遇。通常，学生研究塞曼能级之间的射频共振并测量超精细分裂。尽管其在对准设备方面起着关键作用，但通常在此类实验中并未研究所谓的零场共振。但是，更仔细地研究此现象是有益的。我们表明，这是残余横向磁场的结果，这是由于无法沿局部N – S方向精确对准设备的光轴而导致的。发现传输中类似共振的最小值的测量宽度和深度与with原子的非常小的弛豫率一致。在附录中，我们进一步说明了...