Experimental Investigation of a Rubidium-Argon Dual Species Magneto-Optical Trap

<p>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 be γ_{<em>Rb-Ar</em>,} = (4.8 ± 1.6) × 10⁻¹¹cm³/s. A typical reduction of 3% of the florescence of the trapped ⁸⁵Rb was observed when the ⁴⁰Ar* trap was present. The loss of atoms from the dual trap is presumed to be caused by radiative escape and ionization losses, for an ⁴⁰Ar* MOT it is due to Penning and associative ionization losses. An Ar* PI/AI ionization ratio of 6.7 ± 3.6 was determined, which makes the Penning ionization rate the dominant loss mechanism. The ionization rate was obtained with a SRS RGA200 mass spectrum analyzer specifically modified to work in conjunction with an ion optical field plate setup to collect the ions expelled from the MOT. The ⁸⁵Rb was trapped with a 780 nm diode laser while the ⁴⁰Ar* was slowed and trapped with a 811 nm Ti:sapphire laser, which was specifically modified to be locked to within 1 MHz of the atomic transition with a linewidth of ∼1 MHz. The metastable state ⁴⁰Ar* was produced with a rf driven resonating cavity discharge which produced an atomic beam with an angular flux density of 4 × 10¹⁴ atoms s⁻¹sr⁻¹.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics

Year dc:date.available

2004

Author dc:creator

• Busch, Hauke Christian

Contributors dc:contributor

• Charles I. Sukenik
• Kenneth G. Brown
• Mark Havey
• Charles E. Hyde-Wright
• Colm T. Whelan

• Argon
• Magneto-optical trap
• Rubidium
• Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
• Optics

Statement dc:rights

• <p>In Copyright. URI: <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).</p>

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/physics_etds/37

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.odu.edu:physics_etds-1029