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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Atomic Gradiometry Based On The Interference Of Microwave Optical Sidebands, Kaleb L. Campbell Jul 2022

Atomic Gradiometry Based On The Interference Of Microwave Optical Sidebands, Kaleb L. Campbell

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

We describe a novel pulsed magnetic gradiometer based on the optical interference of sidebands generated using two spatially separated alkali vapor cells. The sidebands are produced with high efficiency using parametric frequency conversion of a probe beam interacting with Rubiduim 87 atoms in a coherent superposition of magnetically sensitive hyperfine ground states. First, experimental evidence of the sideband process is described for both steady-state and pulsed operation. Then, a theoretical framework is developed that accurately models sideband generation based on density matrix formalism. The gradiometer is then constructed using two spatially separated vapor cells, and a beat-note is generated. The …


Realization Of Bsu First Magneto-Optical Trap For The Spatial Confinement Of Rb Atoms Using Next Generation Fiber Optic Capabilities With Minimot, Brahmin Thurber-Carbone May 2021

Realization Of Bsu First Magneto-Optical Trap For The Spatial Confinement Of Rb Atoms Using Next Generation Fiber Optic Capabilities With Minimot, Brahmin Thurber-Carbone

Honors Program Theses and Projects

This paper will be a combination of my theoretical and experimental work toward Bridgewater State Universities first Magneto-Optical Trap (MOT) for laser cooling and trapping of neutral atoms in order to study fundamental quantum mechanical behavior of Rubidium (Rb) atoms. The goal of the theoretical aspect is to complete details of well-established works on how the complicated quantum, atomic, and electromagnetic (laser) interactions required to understand the design and operation of the MOT reduce to the physics and mathematics of a damped oscillator. This is made explicitly clear using familiar damped oscillator systems, such as a spring/mass/damping or pendulum/mass/damping (ie …


Optical-Depth Scaling Of Light Scattering From A Dense And Cold Atomic 87Rb Gas, K. J. Kemp, S. J. Roof, M. D. Havey, I. M. Sokolov, D. V. Kupriyanov, W. Guerin Jan 2020

Optical-Depth Scaling Of Light Scattering From A Dense And Cold Atomic 87Rb Gas, K. J. Kemp, S. J. Roof, M. D. Havey, I. M. Sokolov, D. V. Kupriyanov, W. Guerin

Physics Faculty Publications

We report investigation of near-resonance light scattering from a cold and dense atomic gas of 87Rb atoms. Measurements are made for probe frequencies tuned near the F=2→ F'=3 nearly closed hyperfine transition, with particular attention paid to the dependence of the scattered light intensity on detuning from resonance, the number of atoms in the sample, and atomic sample size. We find that, over a wide range of experimental variables, the optical depth of the atomic sample serves as an effective single scaling parameter which describes well all the experimental data.


Numerical Simulation Of Unstable Laser Resonators With A High Gain Medium, Robert L. Lloyd Sep 2019

Numerical Simulation Of Unstable Laser Resonators With A High Gain Medium, Robert L. Lloyd

Theses and Dissertations

This research focused on the numeric simulation of unstable laser resonators with high gain media. In order to accomplish the research, the modes and eigenvalues for various bare cavity resonator were computed followed by modes of a resonator in the presence of gain. Using a Fourier Split Step Method in a Fox and Li iteration scheme, different laser outputs for various laser cavities with gain were computed. Various parameters defining positive branch confocal unstable resonators were chosen corresponding to four studies. The four studies focused on modifying laser cavity Fresnel number, gain medium parameters, gain cell position, and gain cell …


Designing A Modified Zeeman Slower For The Paschen-Back Magnetic Regime, Leo Michael Nofs Jan 2019

Designing A Modified Zeeman Slower For The Paschen-Back Magnetic Regime, Leo Michael Nofs

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Controlled study of high-density plasmas, such as those found in fusion reactions and stars, is difficult due to their highly-magnetized environments. A specialized high magnetic field (High-B) trap was developed at the University of Michigan in Georg Raithel's research group to study such highly magnetized, high density plasmas using rubidium atoms. By replacing the atom source with a Zeeman slower, a well-studied device to slow and cool atoms, the atom flux could be increased by a factor more than 1000, leading to higher High-B plasma densities. The goal of this project is to design a Zeeman slower that differs from …


Expansion Of An Ultracold Neutral Plasma, Yin Li Jan 2019

Expansion Of An Ultracold Neutral Plasma, Yin Li

Honors Theses

Ultracold neutral plasmas (UNP) exhibit interesting behavior and are more feasible to control than hot plasmas. Physicists would like to lower the temperature of a UNP to achieve a higher Coulomb coupling parameter, Γ for both electrons and ions. However, the three body recombination (TBR) between ions and electrons produces Rydberg atoms and heats up the plasma electrons, thereby ionizing them to Γe < 0.2. Adding Rydberg atoms to the plasma will reduce the temperature of a UNP in certain situations. In this honors project, we tried to achieve a Γe value greater than 0.5 by embedding Rydberg atoms multiple times in the plasma. We did extensive numerical simulations, but we were unable to replicate previous results from another group which obtained Γe = 0.5 in the first 1 µ s of plasma evolution. However, we were able to use the simulation results to test various different experiment scenarios. For experiments, we created a UNP of Rubidium atoms in the magneto-optical trap by laser cooling and photoionization. We figured out a nice way to zero the electric field within the field meshes by looking at the plasma expansion very late in its evolution through the micro-channel plate. We set the voltage and delay on the field mesh bias to find expansion velocity of the plasma for time t > 50 µs, and we used different methods to deduce the expansion velocity from the ion time of flight signals. However, we found that there was no relation of Γe at 1 µ s and the expansion velocity …


Rbhe Potential Energy Surface Sensitivity Study, Ethan D. Thorp Mar 2017

Rbhe Potential Energy Surface Sensitivity Study, Ethan D. Thorp

Theses and Dissertations

This paper studies how alterations of features of RbHe potential energy surfaces (PES) for a diode pumped alkali laser (DPAL) system effect the collisional cross section. The Split-Operator method is used to propagate a wave function along these PES and because they are radially coupled, the wave function can be transmitted from the starting surface to other energy surfaces. This transmittance is encoded in the correlation function. The full Hamiltonian used for propagation consists of the electronic potential, the nuclear kinetic energy, and the Coriolis coupling. The correlation function is used to generate the Scattering Matrix elements. These elements describe …


High Pressure Line Shapes Of The Rb D1 And D2 Lines For 4He And 3He Collisions, Wooddy S. Miller, Christopher A. Rice, Gordon D. Hager, Matthew D. Rotondaro, Hamid Berriche, Glen P. Perram Nov 2016

High Pressure Line Shapes Of The Rb D1 And D2 Lines For 4He And 3He Collisions, Wooddy S. Miller, Christopher A. Rice, Gordon D. Hager, Matthew D. Rotondaro, Hamid Berriche, Glen P. Perram

Faculty Publications

Line shapes for the Rb D1 (52S1/2 ↔ 52P1/2) and D2 (52S1/2 ↔ 52P3/2) transitions with 4He and 3He collisions at pressures of 500–15,000 Torr and temperatures of 333–533 K have been experimentally observed and compared to predictions from the Anderson–Talman theory. The ground X2Σ+1/2 and excited A2Π1/2, A2Π3/2, and B2Σ+1/2 potential energy surfaces required for the line shape predictions have been calculated using a one-electron …


Temperature Dependent Rubidium-Helium Line Shapes And Fine Structure Mixing Rates, Wooddy S. Miller Sep 2015

Temperature Dependent Rubidium-Helium Line Shapes And Fine Structure Mixing Rates, Wooddy S. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

Diode Pumped Alkali Lasers (DPALs) are a new type of laser that uses alkali metal vapor as a gain medium and a buffer gas to control the line shape and kinetics. While these systems were first demonstrated in 2003 [48] they have just recently been scaled to the kilowatt power levels in 2012 [18]. To achieve these powers, the design of the gain cell relied on a set of incomplete line shape and kinetic data. The current focus areas of DPAL research are the continued power scaling of the systems and basic science research into the rates involved within the …


Muonic Bound Systems, Virtual Particles, And Proton Radius, Ulrich D. Jentschura Jul 2015

Muonic Bound Systems, Virtual Particles, And Proton Radius, Ulrich D. Jentschura

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

The proton radius puzzle questions the self-consistency of theory and experiment in light muonic and electronic bound systems. Here we summarize the current status of virtual particle models as well as Lorentz-violating models that have been proposed in order to explain the discrepancy. Highly charged one-electron ions and muonic bound systems have been used as probes of the strongest electromagnetic fields achievable in the laboratory. The average electric field seen by a muon orbiting a proton is comparable to hydrogenlike uranium and, notably, larger than the electric field in the most advanced strong-laser facilities. Effective interactions due to virtual annihilation …


Measuring The Hyperfine Splittings Of Lowest Energy Atomic Transitions In Rubidium, Benjamin D. Graber Apr 2015

Measuring The Hyperfine Splittings Of Lowest Energy Atomic Transitions In Rubidium, Benjamin D. Graber

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

The goal of this experiment was to measure the hyperfine energy splittings of the ground to first excited state transitions in rubidium using saturated absorption spectroscopy. Using this technique, we measured these transition energy spectra by taking the difference of two photodiode outputs due to multiple beams of a single laser scanned over a range of frequencies and shone through a cell of Rb vapor. When the laser frequency was resonant with an atomic transition, photons of those frequencies were absorbed, leaving a dip in intensity of the beam measured at the photodiode. One of the two laser beams had …


Scaling Of An Optically Pumped Mid-Infrared Rubidium Laser, Paul J. Moran Mar 2015

Scaling Of An Optically Pumped Mid-Infrared Rubidium Laser, Paul J. Moran

Theses and Dissertations

An optically pumped mid-infrared rubidium (Rb) pulsed laser has been demonstrated in a heat pipe along the 62P3/2 - 62S1/2 transition at 2.730 µm and the 62P1/2 - 62S1/2 transition at 2.790 µm. The bleached limit, slope efficiency, and maximum laser output energy of the mid-IR Rb laser have been shown to scale linearly with increasing Rb density, contrary to prior laser demonstrations. A maximum output energy of 5 nJ per pulse had previously been observed before a rollover occurred in the scaling of output energy with Rb …


Construction And Optimization Of A Tapered Amplifier System For Applications In Ultra-Cold Plasma Research, Ryan Cole Jan 2015

Construction And Optimization Of A Tapered Amplifier System For Applications In Ultra-Cold Plasma Research, Ryan Cole

Honors Theses

The number density of cold atoms confined in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) is critically dependent on the intensity of the lasers used to cool the sample. To generate large optical powers while retaining the practicality of homemade external cavity diode lasers (ECDLs), a tapered amplifier (TA) system was designed and constructed to amplify the output of an existing 780 nm, continuous-wave ECDL. The amplifier’s performance is discussed in terms of its gain and power output. Under standard operating conditions, optical amplification of 12 dB is achieved, with a maximum power output of 0.75 W. The completed amplifier is installed into …


Optically-Pumped Spin-Exchange Polarized Electron Source, Munir Pirbhai Dec 2013

Optically-Pumped Spin-Exchange Polarized Electron Source, Munir Pirbhai

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Polarized electron beams are an indispensable probe of spin-dependent phenomena in fields of atomic and molecular physics, magnetism and biophysics. While their uses have become widespread, the standard source based on negative electron affinity gallium arsenide (GaAs) remains technically complicated. This has hindered progress on many experiments involving spin-polarized electrons, especially those using target gas loads, which tend to adversely affect the performance of GaAs sources. A robust system based on an alternative way to make polarized electron beams has been devised in this study, which builds on previous work done in our lab. It involves spin-exchange collisions between free, …


Nested Gaussian Laser Beams - A Blue-Detuned One-Dimensional Lattice Of Optical Dipole Traps For Quantum Computing, Travis Daniel Frazer Mar 2013

Nested Gaussian Laser Beams - A Blue-Detuned One-Dimensional Lattice Of Optical Dipole Traps For Quantum Computing, Travis Daniel Frazer

Physics

No abstract provided.


Versatile Rb Vapor Cells With Long Lifetimes, John F. Hulbert, Matthieu Giraud-Carrier, Tom Wall, Aaron R. Hawkins, Scott D. Bergeson, Jennifer Black, Holger Schmidt Jan 2013

Versatile Rb Vapor Cells With Long Lifetimes, John F. Hulbert, Matthieu Giraud-Carrier, Tom Wall, Aaron R. Hawkins, Scott D. Bergeson, Jennifer Black, Holger Schmidt

Faculty Publications

The authors report on an approach to the construction of long-lasting rubidium atomic vapor cells. The method uses pinch-off copper cold-welds, low temperature solders, and electroplated copper to create long-lasting hermetic seals between containment chambers of dissimilar geometries and materials. High temperature epoxy, eutectic lead/tin solder, and indium solder were considered as sealing materials. These seals were analyzed using accelerated lifetime testing techniques. Vapor cells with epoxy and bare metal solder seals had a decrease in the rubidium atomic density within days after being heated to elevated temperatures. They also exhibited broadened spectra as a result of rubidium reacting with …


Two-Photon Direct Frequency Comb Spectroscopy Of Rubidium, Sophia Lee Chen Jan 2012

Two-Photon Direct Frequency Comb Spectroscopy Of Rubidium, Sophia Lee Chen

Honors Papers

Precision spectroscopy measurements have contributed significantly to our understanding of the fundamental structure of atoms. Here we present an experiment involving a new precision spectroscopic technique using a femtosecond optical frequency comb to excite two-photon transitions in rubidium. A femtosecond optical frequency comb is an ultrashort, pulsed laser with tens of thousands of frequencies, equally spaced in frequency-space. These frequencies can be used to excite atoms to specific transitions. The frequency comb is a versatile instrument that can avoid many of the experimental uncertainties that are associated with other spectroscopic techniques. The specific technique we use is called velocity selective …


Achieving Laser Wavelength Stability For Use In Neutral Atom Quantum Computing, Jennifer H. Rushing Dec 2011

Achieving Laser Wavelength Stability For Use In Neutral Atom Quantum Computing, Jennifer H. Rushing

Physics

Quantum computing may still be decades away from realization but the pieces necessary for the construction of the first quantum chip are beginning to come together. One piece still eluding researchers is the ability to address individual atoms within a scalable quantum chip structure. The resolution to this issue may be found in any one of several promising implementations, including the use of neutral atoms trapped in 2D optical lattices. One method of constructing such lattices, which has been shown to be computationally viable, employs the diffraction pattern just behind a circular aperture. Laser wavelength stability plays a crucial role …


Diffusion Of Rubidium Vapor Through Hollow-Core Fibers For Gas-Phase Fiber Lasers, Eric M. Guild Mar 2011

Diffusion Of Rubidium Vapor Through Hollow-Core Fibers For Gas-Phase Fiber Lasers, Eric M. Guild

Theses and Dissertations

This work examines the diffusion of rubidium through a small diameter tube alone and in the presence of noble gases. A fluid dynamics analysis is investigated to aid in choosing a method for transferring atomic rubidium vapor that is reliable and efficient. Solutions to the time dependant ordinary differential equation describing the experimental flow properties of the system reveal more precise outcomes than previously practiced routines. Resolved viscosities and Poiseuille flow theory velocity profile distributions are characterized for noble gas carriers of the rubidium vapor. Applying Reynolds Numbers to the flow experiments provides pressure differential boundaries that are employed in …


Spectroscopic Study Of Ultracold Rubidium Atoms In An Optical Dipole Force Trap, Eman Mohammed Ahmed Jul 2010

Spectroscopic Study Of Ultracold Rubidium Atoms In An Optical Dipole Force Trap, Eman Mohammed Ahmed

Physics Theses & Dissertations

The interaction of light with atoms and molecules is of fundamental interest in many branches of science. In atomic physics, this interaction can be used to cool and spatially confine (trap) atoms. These traps can be used as the starting point for other experiments, but the dynamics of the cooling and trapping processes is itself of interest. In order to better understand the physics of trapping atoms in an optical dipole force trap, we have conducted a series of spectroscopic measurements of ultracold rubidium atoms in such a trap. The trap was created at the focus of a Nd:YAG laser …


Hard Collisions In Rubidium Using Sub-Doppler Spectroscopy, Douglas E. Thornton Mar 2010

Hard Collisions In Rubidium Using Sub-Doppler Spectroscopy, Douglas E. Thornton

Theses and Dissertations

To better understand the laser kinetics of an alkali gain medium, hard collisions, or velocity-changing collisions, has been studied and a velocity-changing collisional rate has been calculated. Previous works have studied these collisions, but no rate has been calculated. Using the precise tool of sub-Doppler spectroscopy, atomic hard collisions can be observed. The collected spectra are fitted with two different line shapes to demonstrate the accuracy of this method. From the fits, the number of hard collisions can be extracted. The time scale of the hard collisions in rubidium is interpolated by varying the chopping frequency of the pump beam, …


Rubidium Recycling In A High Intensity Short Duration Pulsed Alkali Laser, Wooddy S. Miller Mar 2010

Rubidium Recycling In A High Intensity Short Duration Pulsed Alkali Laser, Wooddy S. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

Laser induced fluorescence was used to study how pump pulse duration and alkali recycle time effects maximum power output in a Diode Pumped Alkali Laser (DPAL) system. A high intensity short pulsed pump source was used to excited rubidium atoms inside a DPAL-type laser. The maximum output power of the laser showed a strong dependence upon the temporal width of the pump pulse in addition to the input pump intensity. A linear relationship was observed between the maximum output power and the pulse width due to the effective lifetime of the excited state, defined as the time it takes for …


Investigation Of Loading Of Pulsed And Continuous-Wave Optical Dipole Force Traps, M. Shiddiq, E. M. Ahmed, M. D. Havey, C. I. Sukenik Apr 2008

Investigation Of Loading Of Pulsed And Continuous-Wave Optical Dipole Force Traps, M. Shiddiq, E. M. Ahmed, M. D. Havey, C. I. Sukenik

Physics Faculty Publications

We have investigated the behavior of an optical dipole force trap realized using a mode-locked Nd:YAG laser and have compared performance to a continuous-wave (cw) trap built using the same laser but running in a cw mode. The traps are used to confine ultracold 85Rb atoms which are loaded from a magneto-optical trap (MOT). In most respects, the two traps behave similarly over a wide range of laser parameters provided that the average potential well depth is the same; however, there is a notable difference in the dipole trap loading efficiency dependence on the detuning of the MOT trap laser …


Photoassociative Spectroscopy Of Ultracold Metastable Argon And Study Of Dual Species Trap Loss In A Rubidium-Metastable Argon Mot, Michael K. Shaffer Apr 2008

Photoassociative Spectroscopy Of Ultracold Metastable Argon And Study Of Dual Species Trap Loss In A Rubidium-Metastable Argon Mot, Michael K. Shaffer

Physics Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation presents the findings of two experimental investigations in ultracold atomic and molecular physics: The study of the dual species trap loss in a rubidium - metastable argon magneto-optical trap and the photoassociative spectroscopy of ultracold metastable argon. The interspecies trap loss rate coefficients have been measured for ultracold collisions between 85Rb and 40Ar* in a dual-species magneto-optical trap (MOT) and the two rates have been found to be approximately equal over the range of intensities studied with values of β'Rb–Ar* = 3.0 ± 1.3 × 10-11 cm3/s and β'Ar*–Rb = 1.9 …


Modified Control Software For Imaging Ultracold Atomic Clouds, Dwight L. Whitaker, A. Sharma, J. M. Brown Dec 2006

Modified Control Software For Imaging Ultracold Atomic Clouds, Dwight L. Whitaker, A. Sharma, J. M. Brown

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

A charge-coupled device (CCD) camera capable of taking high-quality images of ultracold atomic samples can often represent a significant portion of the equipment costs in atom trapping experiment. We have modified the commercial control software of a CCD camera designed for astronomical imaging to take absorption images of ultracold rubidium clouds. This camera is sensitive at 780 nm and has been modified to take three successive 16-bit images at full resolution. The control software can be integrated into a Matlab graphical user interface with fitting routines written as Matlab functions. This camera is capable of recording high-quality images at a …


Investigation Of Ultracold Rubidium Atoms In A Pulsed Far Off Resonance Trap, Minarni Minarni Jul 2006

Investigation Of Ultracold Rubidium Atoms In A Pulsed Far Off Resonance Trap, Minarni Minarni

Physics Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation reports on the design, construction, and investigation of a pulsed optical dipole force trap which uses laser light to confine ultracold rubidium (Rb) atoms. Because the laser frequency is detuned far from the atomic resonance frequency, the optical dipole force trap is also called a "far-off-resonance trap" (FORT). The use of pulsed laser light to create an optical trap may find application in expanding the number of atomic species which can be confined. The experiments reported here are principally aimed, however, at understanding the physics of pulsed FORT dynamics in anticipation of using the free electron laser (FEL) …


Trap Loss In A Dual-Species Rb-Ar* Magneto-Optical Trap, H. C. Busch, M. K. Shaffer, E. M. Ahmed, C. I. Sukenik Feb 2006

Trap Loss In A Dual-Species Rb-Ar* Magneto-Optical Trap, H. C. Busch, M. K. Shaffer, E. M. Ahmed, C. I. Sukenik

Physics Faculty Publications

We have investigated trap loss in a dual-species magneto-optical trap (MOT) comprised of 85Rb and metastable 40Ar. We measure the trap loss rate coefficients for each species due to the presence of the other as a function of trap light intensity. We clearly identify both Penning ionization of Rb by Ar* and associative ionization to form the molecular ion RbAr+ as two of the trap loss channels. We have also measured the trap loss rate coefficient for the Ar* MOT alone and observe production of Ar+ and Ar2+ ions.


Alignment Dynamics Of Slow Light Diffusion In Ultracold Atomic 85Rb, S. Balik, R. G. Olave, C. I. Sukenik, M. D. Havey, V. M. Datsyuk, I. M. Sokolov, D. V. Kupriyanov Nov 2005

Alignment Dynamics Of Slow Light Diffusion In Ultracold Atomic 85Rb, S. Balik, R. G. Olave, C. I. Sukenik, M. D. Havey, V. M. Datsyuk, I. M. Sokolov, D. V. Kupriyanov

Physics Faculty Publications

A combined experimental and theoretical investigation of time- and alignment-dependent propagation of light in an ultracold atomic gas of atomic 85Rb is reported. Coherences among the scattering amplitudes for light scattering off excited hyperfine levels produce strong variations of the light polarization in the vicinity of atomic resonance. Measurements are in excellent agreement with Monte Carlo simulations of the multiple scattering process.


New Limits On The Drift Of Fundamental Constants From Laboratory Measurements, Marc P. Fischer, Nikolai N. Kolachevsky, Marcus Zimmermann, Ronald Holzwarth, Th H. Udem, Theodor Wolfgang Hansch, Michel Abgrall, Jan Grunert, Ivan Maksimovic, Sebastien Bize, Harold Marion, Franck Pereira M Dos Santos, Pierre Lemonde, Giorgio Santarelli, Ph Laurent, Andre Clairon, Christophe Salomon, Martin K. Haas, Ulrich D. Jentschura, Christoph H. Keitel Jun 2004

New Limits On The Drift Of Fundamental Constants From Laboratory Measurements, Marc P. Fischer, Nikolai N. Kolachevsky, Marcus Zimmermann, Ronald Holzwarth, Th H. Udem, Theodor Wolfgang Hansch, Michel Abgrall, Jan Grunert, Ivan Maksimovic, Sebastien Bize, Harold Marion, Franck Pereira M Dos Santos, Pierre Lemonde, Giorgio Santarelli, Ph Laurent, Andre Clairon, Christophe Salomon, Martin K. Haas, Ulrich D. Jentschura, Christoph H. Keitel

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We have remeasured the absolute 1S-2S transition frequency νH in atomic hydrogen. A comparison with the result of the previous measurement performed in 1999 sets a limit of (-29 ± 57) Hz for the drift of νH with respect to the ground state hyperfine splitting νCs in 133Cs. Combining this result with the recently published optical transition frequency in 199Hg+ against νCs and a microwave 87Rb and 133Cs clock comparison, we deduce separate limits on α˙ / α = (-0.9 &plusm; 2.9) x 10-15 yr-1 and the fractional time …


Experimental Investigation Of A Rubidium-Argon Dual Species Magneto-Optical Trap, Hauke Christian Busch Apr 2004

Experimental Investigation Of A Rubidium-Argon Dual Species Magneto-Optical Trap, Hauke Christian Busch

Physics Theses & Dissertations

The first simultaneous cooling and confinement of two different atomic species from opposite sides of the periodic table in a dual magneto optical trap (DMOT) has been accomplished. The alkali-metal 85Rb and the noble gas 40Ar* have been simultaneously confined, characterized, and interspecies interaction parameters have been measured. The DMOT confined 1.2 × 106 85Rb atoms at a density of 1 × 1010/cm3 and 1.4 × 106 40Ar* atoms with a density of 1.2 × 1010/cm3. A collisional loss rate coefficient for Rb-Ar* has been determined to …