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Apparatus Improvement And Characterisation For Experiments On Ultra-Cold Plasmas., Jakub Bystrický

Honors Theses

Apparatus for creating ultra-cold neutral plasmas (UNPs) was improved and data on plasma expansion was collected. We increase the trapping efficiency of a quadrupole magneto-optical trap (MOT) by installing a tapered amplifier to increase the power of the cooling laser used to trap atoms. We achieve an improvement in density of trapped atoms from 1 x 10¹⁰ cm^-3 to 2.5 - 4.5 x 10¹⁰ cm^-3. In addition, to improve precision and decrease systematic error, the magnetic field induced by inductive current in the MOT's anti-helmholtz coils was suppressed. This was achieved by installing a KEPCO …