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Pulsed dye laser for excitation of strontium

Priya Gupta

Published Jan 1, 2004• 3 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

This thesis describes the construction and characterization of a high energy, tunable, pulsed dye laser that is used to make ultracold strontium plasma. In order to make ultracold plasma, we cool and trap strontium atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) and then photoionize them with the dye laser. The dye laser is pumped by high-energy 355nm pulses from a commercial Nd:YAG laser and it gives out 10ns pulses of 400--415nm light with up to 50mJ/pulse. We will discuss the lasers spectrum, wavelength calibration, output power and efficiency for photoionizing strontium.

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Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General•May 23, 2003•35 citations
This thesis describes the construction and characterization of a high energy, tunable, pulsed dye laser that is used to make ultracold strontium plasma. In order to make ultracold plasma, we cool and trap strontium atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) and then photoionize them with the dye laser. The dye laser is pumped by high-energy 355nm pulses from a commercial Nd:YAG laser and it gives out 10ns pulses of 400--415nm light with up to 50mJ/pulse. We will discuss the lasers spectrum, wavelength calibration, output power and efficiency for photoionizing strontium.
This thesis describes Rydberg spectroscopy and dressing experiments in an ultracold strontium gas. The strontium atoms are cooled to sub-uK temperatures in a narrowline magneto-optical trap, where Rydberg atoms are created using a two-photon excitation scheme. This required the development of a high-power ultraviolet laser system at 319 nm. The laser has a large tuning range for access to triplet Rydberg states from principal quantum numbers of 35 to > 300. By performing Rydberg spectroscopy in a magneto-optical trap, we show that narrow spectra can be obtained where the line centre is determined to ~ 10 kHz. A frequency comb is then employed to make absolute frequency measurements of optical transitions to accuracies of < 2 MHz. Techniques are outlined for improving the accuracy further, showing that overall uncertainties on the order of 10 kHz can be obtained. The reliable measurement of Rydberg levels is important for studying the variation in quantum defect across Rydberg series, and hence improving the accuracy of atomic models. In this work we also develop a novel system in which to realise Rydberg dressing. By resonantly coupling the excited state of the cooling transition to a high lying Rydberg state, we create a Rydberg-dressed magneto-optical trap. We demonstrate that the atoms acquire Rydberg properties, while undergoing continuous cooling at ~ 1 uK. The lifetime of the trap is proved to be sufficiently long to observe interactions, however the interaction strength is currently limited by the non-uniform spatial profile of the dressing beam. Straightforward methods to overcome this limitation are presented. As such this work should lead to future experiments, whereby tuneable long-range interactions can be observed in the dynamics of the dressed magneto-optical trap.
Laser cooling has become a powerful tool for producing quantum gases and has enabled the study of a wide range of phenomena only accessible at ultracold temperatures. This thesis will describe the implementation and characterization of a magneto-optical trap (MOT) for laser cooling strontium to microkelvin temperatures operating on the narrow 689nm transition (the “red” MOT). The red MOT is the second cooling stage required to create quantum degenerate gases of strontium, bridging the temperatures and densities produced by the first cooling stage (the 461 nm “blue” MOT) and the shallow conservative traps for evaporation to quantum degeneracy.
Photoionizing laser-cooled atoms produces ultracold neutral plasmas with initial temperatures of 1–1000 K and densities as high as 10 10 cm −3 . Applied radio frequency fields can excite plasma oscillations that are used to monitor the expansion of the unconfined plasma. Significant three-body recombination of electrons and ions into Rydberg atoms takes place during the plasma expansion. Previous experiments have been done with xenon, but a new experiment is planned with laser-cooled strontium. The strontium ion has an optically allowed transition at a convenient blue wavelength. This will allow direct imaging of the plasma through fluorescence or absorption, and may enable laser cooling and trapping of the plasma.