American Institute of Physics, Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A, 3(34), p. 031602
DOI: 10.1116/1.4945386
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Rubidium vapor transport through micron-scale capillaries is analyzed. A testing platform is assembled out of copper tubing, glass chromatography vials, and glass microbore capillary tubing. The system is loaded with rubidium vapor and hermetically sealed under a vacuum of <1 mTorr. The cells are then stored at 100 °C and monitored daily for absorption and fluorescence over a period of several weeks. Rubidium vapor transport is observed and shown to follow a nondiffusive behavior. A model of the form ttransport=η(L/d2)+tseason, where L is the length of the capillary and d is the diameter, describes the movement of the Rb, with η = 24 μm-days and tseason=9 days. The authors conclude that rubidium transport in uncoated standalone glass systems is quite slow and offers additional considerations for practical integration setups.