Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

2-1-1994

Abstract

Boundary conditions are derived for spin dynamics of spin-polarized quantum gases near nonmagnetic walls. We are interested mostly in boundary-induced line shifts and attenuation of spin waves, and in the possibility of having a macroscopic boundary condition for systems close to a Knudsen ballistic regime. We consider the effects caused by roughness of the wall and by surface adsorption. By a proper coordinate transformation, we reduce the problem of particle collisions with an inhomogeneous nonmagnetic wall to an equivalent problem with a specular homogeneous wall but with stochastic bulk imperfections. As a result, the boundary effects are described by some additional bulklike transverse spin-diffusion coefficient inversely proportional to the angular harmonics of the correlation function of surface inhomogeneities. This leads to an effective macroscopiclike boundary condition for transverse spin dynamics responsible for the boundary effects in spin-wave resonances. The situation changes drastically at low temperatures because of an appearance of an adsorbed boundary layer which renormalizes the molecular field near the wall, and leads to additional effective spin-exchange processes. The experimental implications for helium and hydrogen systems are discussed.

Publisher Statement

© 1994 The American Physical Society

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