Development of Laser Cooling, Trapping, and Doppler-free Saturated Absorption Experiments for Undergraduates

一套本科实验室实验，复制当前正在进行的研究活动和技术在原子/激光物理领域将被开发。这些实验将使用可调谐窄带二极管激光系统。第一个实验是利用激光在碱蒸汽电池中获得非常高分辨率的无多普勒饱和吸收光谱。大部分工作将是开发一种廉价的设备，本科生可以在其中捕获中性原子并将其冷却到微开尔文的温度。这些实验将是最先进的激光冷却和俘获实验的稍微修改版本，并将在高级实验课程中进行测试。这项工作的目标是开发一种非常简单、廉价、可以广泛复制的设备，并使本科生能够参与到当前的物理研究领域。

A set of undergraduate laboratory experiments which duplicate current ongoing research activities and techniques in the field of atomic/laser physics will be developed. These experiments will use tuneable narrowband diode laser systems. The first experiment is the use of lasers to obtain very high resolution Doppler-free saturated absorption spectra in alkali vapor cells. The majority of the work will be the development of an inexpensive apparatus in which undergraduates can trap neutral atoms and cool them to temperatures on the order of a microkelvin. These experiments will be a slightly modified version of state-of-the-art experiments in laser cooling and trapping, and will be tested in an advanced lab course. The goal of the work will be the development of a very simple inexpensive apparatus which can be widely duplicated, and which will allow undergraduates to become involved in a current area of physics research.