Designing Ultra-High Vacuum Components and Stabilizing a Laser to Excite Rubidium Atoms to Rydberg States, Poster 39
Abstract
Hot atoms are let loose in an evacuated chamber and then cooled to under 1 Kelvin to form a cloud of about 20 million atoms using four lasers and a magnetic field which compose a magneto-optical trap; the cloud is then... [ view full abstract ]
Hot atoms are let loose in an evacuated chamber and then cooled to under 1 Kelvin to form a cloud of about 20 million atoms using four lasers and a magnetic field which compose a magneto-optical trap; the cloud is then launched upward by manipulating the frequencies of specific lasers. Understanding the cloud’s properties, such as shape and size, is achieved through optical imaging as it rests and analysis of absorbed light as the cloud passes upwards through two laser beams in the flight path. A recently-added camera at the bottom of the chamber allows for better characterization of the cloud’s dimensions and alignment of the magneto-optical trap.
I digitally recreated the chamber in computer-aided drawing software, partly to advance our design of a custom internal wire mount. A recently machined polyimide mount will hold a charged sub-100 µm diameter wire in the path of the launched atoms to create the spatially varying electric field. Using two additional lasers, the atoms will be excited to have high principle quantum numbers (Rydberg states) which will interact with the electric field. One of these lasers must be stabilized using a Fabry-Pérot interferometer which is currently being built.
Authors
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David Cohen '20
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Sasha Clarick '19
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Anne Goodsell
Topic Area
Science & Technology
Session
P2 » Poster Presentations: Group 2 and Refreshments (2:45pm - Friday, 20th April, MBH Great Hall, 331 and 338)