Measurement of the Ratio between g‐Factors of the Ground States of 87Rb and 85Rb

The ratio between the Landé g‐factors of the ${}^{87}$Rb $F=2$ and ${}^{85}$Rb $F=3$ ground‐state hyperfine levels is experimentally measured to be $g_F(87)/g_F(85)=1.4988586(1)$, consistent with previous measurements. The g‐factor ratio is determined by comparing the Larmor frequencies of overlapping ensembles of ${}^{87}$Rb and ${}^{85}$Rb atoms contained within an evacuated, antirelaxation‐coated vapor cell. The atomic spins are polarized via synchronous optical pumping and the Larmor frequencies are measured by off‐resonant probing using optical rotation of linearly polarized light. The accuracy of this measurement of $g_F(87)/g_F(85)$ exceeds that of previous measurements by a factor of ≈50 and is sensitive to effects related to quantum electrodynamics.