Nonlinear magneto-optical Faraday rotation (NMOR) on the potassium D1 and D2 lines was used to study Zeeman relaxation rates in an antirelaxation paraffin-coated 3-cm-diameter potassium vapor cell. Intrinsic Zeeman relaxation rates of gamma(NMOR)/2 pi=2.0(6) Hz were observed. The relatively small hyperfine intervals in potassium lead to significant differences in NMOR in potassium compared to rubidium and cesium. Using laser optical pumping, widths and frequency shifts were also determined for transitions between ground-state hyperfine sublevels of K-39 atoms contained in the same paraffin-coated cell. The intrinsic hyperfine relaxation rate of gamma(hf)(expt)/2 pi=10.6(7) Hz and a shift of -9.1(2) Hz were observed. These results show that adiabatic relaxation gives only a small contribution to the overall hyperfine relaxation in the case of potassium, and the relaxation is dominated by other mechanisms similar to those observed in previous studies with rubidium.

We report on an experimental and theoretical study of the dynamic (ac) Stark effect on a forbidden transition. A general framework for parametrizing and describing off-resonant ac-Stark shifts is presented. A model is developed to calculate spectral line shapes resulting from resonant excitation of atoms in an intense standing light wave in the presence of off-resonant ac-Stark shifts. The model is used in the analysis and interpretation of a measurement of the ac-Stark shifts of the static-electric-field-induced 6s(2) S-1(0)-> 5d6s(3)D(1) transition at 408 nm in atomic Yb. The results are in agreement with estimates of the ac-Stark shift of the transition under the assumption that the shift is dominated by that of the 6s(2) S-1(0) ground state. A detailed description of the experiment and analysis is presented. A biproduct of this work is an independent determination (from the saturation behavior of the 408-nm transition) of the Stark transition polarizability, which is found to be in agreement with our earlier measurement. This work is part of the ongoing effort aimed at a precision measurement of atomic parity-violation effects in Yb.

We consider the limitations due to noise (e.g., quantum projection noise and photon shot-noise) on the sensitivity of an idealized atomic magnetometer that utilizes spin squeezing induced by a continuous quantum nondemolition measurement. Such a magnetometer measures spin precession of N atomic spins by detecting optical rotation of far-detuned light. We show that for very short measurement times, the optimal sensitivity scales as N-3/4; if strongly squeezed probe light is used, the Heisenberg limit of N-1 scaling can be achieved. However, if the measurement time exceeds tau(rel)/N-1/2 in the former case, or tau(rel)/N in the latter, where tau(rel) is the spin relaxation time, the scaling becomes N-1/2, as for a standard shot-noise-limited magnetometer.