Design of an atomic physics experiment to search for the electron electric dipole moment

Melanie Kittle

Published Dec 24, 2005• 0 citations

Abstract

This thesis describes efforts towards the design and construction of an apparatus to measure the electric dipole moment (edm) of the electron. The current experimental bound on the electron edm, d[subscript e], is |d[subscript e]| ≤ 1.6×10⁻²⁷ e·cm [1]. Our system is designed to be sensitive to an electron dipole moment as small as 10⁻²⁹ e·cm. The experiment will use laser-cooled Cs atoms loaded and captured in optical molasses from a separate 2D MOT cold atom source. The atoms diffusing in the optical molasses will be trapped by two side-by-side standing wave, far-off resonance optical dipole force traps. High voltage electrodes will apply opposite polarity electric fields to the two traps. The signature of an edm would be a first-order electric field shift of the atomic Zeeman levels upon reversal of the electric fields. We have paid special attention to the magnetic noise generated by Johnson noise currents of conductors in the design of this apparatus

DOI: 10.26153/tsw/56628

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