Peculiarities of Faraday effect in atomic layers of Cs and Rb with the thickness varying in the range of 20-900 nm and applications

The peculiarities of the Faraday effect (rotation of the plane of polarization of laser radiation in a magnetic field) are studied for the first time in the atomic vapors of the Cs and the Rb D1 lines using the nano- cells with the varying thickness L in the range of 20−900 nm. It is demonstrated that for the range of 100< L< 900 nm the Faraday rotation (FR) signal has a maximum for the highlighted thicknesses L= λ/2 = 448 nm (for the Cs) and 398 nm (for the Rb). Such type of peculiarities are absent for the common cells of centimeter-length. For the thickness L<100 nm the spectra of the FR demonstrate frequency “red shift” which gives evidence of the van der Waals (VW) effect. For the Rb atoms and L=60 nm (this is a record low L for FR observation) a giant frequency “red shift” of “-100 MHz” for the peak of the spectrum and of “- 400 MHz” for the low-frequencies-wing has been observed. For the atomic transitions VW coefficients C3 which characterize the atom-dielectric surface interaction were measured. The influence of the “recoil effect” which induces an additional “red shift” has been observed.