Laser cooling and trapping with electronically stabilized grating-feedback diode lasers

• Main Author: Silva, Nancy J.
• Other Authors: McIntyre, David H.
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Laser cooling; Rubidium
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1957/34502

We have developed simple and inexpensive laser systems using grating-feedback diode lasers with electronic feedback to the injection current. These grating-feedback lasers can be continuously scanned up to 10 GHz and have a linewidth of 150 kHz. The three electronic frequency-stabilization systems we developed use polarization spectroscopy, etalon transmission and modified heterodyne signals as the frequency discriminators to drive an integrating servo control circuit. These laser systems are used for laser cooling and trapping of rubidium and atomic beam diagnostics. The rubidium D��� line at 780 nm is a strong, cycling transition that can be used for laser cooling and trapping. We use chirped cooling and Zeeman-tuned cooling to slow atoms from a thermal atomic beam. These atoms are loaded into a two-dimensional magneto-optic trap, or funnel. Using a frequency offset of the trapping lasers, the atoms are ejected from the funnel at a controllable velocity. The diode laser systems we have developed are a central component of this rubidium atomic funnel. We will use the funnel's bright, cold atomic beam as a source for matter-wave interferometry. We also developed an ionization detector to measure the flux and the spatial profile of the atomic beam when the background of scattered light makes fluorescent detection difficult. === Graduation date: 1997