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A compact system for ultracold atoms
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dc.contributor.advisor | Cassettari, Donatella | |
dc.contributor.author | Torralbo Campo, Lara | |
dc.coverage.spatial | 166 | en_US |
dc.date.accessioned | 2012-10-17T14:30:05Z | |
dc.date.available | 2012-10-17T14:30:05Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2012-11-30 | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10023/3192 | |
dc.description.abstract | This thesis describes the design, construction and optimisation of two compact setups to produce ⁸⁷Rb Bose-Einstein condensates and dual ⁷Li-⁸⁷Rb Magneto-Optical Traps (MOTs). The motivation for compact systems is to have simplified systems to cool the atoms. The first experimental setup is based on a single pyrex glass cell without the need for atom chips. Fast evaporation will be achieved in a hybrid trap comprising of a magnetic quadrupole trap and an optical dipole trap created by a Nd:YVO4 laser and with future plans of using a Spatial Light Modulator (SLM). To enhance an efficient and rapid evaporation, we have investigated Light-Induced Atomic Desorption (LIAD) to modulate the Rb partial pressure during the cooling and trapping stage. With this technique, a ⁸⁷Rb MOT of 7 x 10⁷ atoms was loaded by shining violet light from a LED source into the glass cell, whose walls are coated with rubidium atoms. The atoms were then cooled by optical molasses and then loaded into a magnetic trap where lifetime measurements demonstrated that LIAD improves on magnetically-trapped atoms loaded from constant background pressure by a factor of six. This is quite encouraging and opens the possibility to do a rapid evaporation. In a second experiment, we have designed a compact system based on a stainless steel chamber to trap either ⁷Li or ⁶Li atoms in a MOT loaded from alkali-metal dispensers without the need of conventional oven-Zeeman slower. This setup can also load ⁸⁷Rb atoms, allowing future projects to simultaneously produce degenerate quantum gases of bosonic ⁸⁷Rb and fermionic ⁶Li atoms. | en_US |
dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
dc.publisher | University of St Andrews | |
dc.rights | Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported | |
dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ | |
dc.subject | Bose-Einstein condensation | en_US |
dc.subject | Light-induced atomic desorption | en_US |
dc.subject | Ultracold atoms | en_US |
dc.subject | Dual magneto-optical trap | en_US |
dc.subject | Bose-Fermi mixtures | en_US |
dc.subject | Evaporative cooling | en_US |
dc.subject | Single cell setup | en_US |
dc.subject.lcc | QC175.47B65T7 | |
dc.subject.lcsh | Bose-Einstein condensation | en_US |
dc.subject.lcsh | Cold gases | en_US |
dc.subject.lcsh | Magnetooptical devices | en_US |
dc.subject.lcsh | Magnetic traps | en_US |
dc.subject.lcsh | Evaporative cooling | en_US |
dc.title | A compact system for ultracold atoms | en_US |
dc.type | Thesis | en_US |
dc.type.qualificationlevel | Doctoral | en_US |
dc.type.qualificationname | PhD Doctor of Philosophy | en_US |
dc.publisher.institution | The University of St Andrews | en_US |
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