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

将开发一套本科生实验室实验，复制原子/激光物理领域目前正在进行的研究活动和技术。这些实验将使用可调谐的窄带半导体激光系统。第一个实验是使用激光在碱性蒸汽室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仪器，在这种仪器中，本科生可以捕获中性原子，并将它们冷却到微开尔文量级的温度。这些实验将是对最先进的激光冷却和俘获实验的略微修改版本，并将在高级实验室课程中进行测试。这项工作的目标是开发一种非常简单、廉价、可广泛复制的仪器，使本科生能够参与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.