Interferometric Laser Cooling of Atomic Rubidium.

Bose-Einstein Condensation in a CO2-laser Optical Dipole Trap

We report on the achieving of Bose-Einstein condensation of a dilute atomic gas based on trapping atoms in tightly confining CO2-laser dipole potentials. Quantum degeneracy of rubidium atoms is reached by direct evaporative cooling in both crossed and single beam trapping geometries. At the heart of these alloptical condensation experiments is the ability to obtain high initial atomic densities...

Compact diffraction grating laser wavemeter with sub-picometer accuracy and picowatt sensitivity using a webcam imaging sensor.

We describe a compact laser wavelength measuring instrument based on a small diffraction grating and a consumer-grade webcam. With just 1 pW of optical power, the instrument achieves absolute accuracy of 0.7 pm, sufficient to resolve individual hyperfine transitions of the rubidium absorption spectrum. Unlike interferometric wavemeters, the instrument clearly reveals multimode laser operation,...

Candlestick rubidium beam source

Many atomic physics laboratories rely on beams of alkali atoms for their experiments, for example in the atom optics and laser cooling communities. Rubidium is commonly used, due to the fortunate coincidence of the dipole resonant transition with the optimum output wavelength of low-cost AlGaAs semiconductor lasers. Suitable rubidium beams can easily be produced with effusive ovens, but many ex...

Evaporative Cooling of a Guided Rubidium Atomic Beam

Interferometric measurement of the resonant absorption and refractive index in rubidium gas

We present a laboratory demonstration of the Kramers-Kronig relation between the resonant absorption and refractive index in rubidium gas. Our experiment uses a rubidium vapor cell in one arm of a simple Mach-Zehnder interferometer. As the laser frequency is scanned over an atomic resonance, the interferometer output is affected by variations of both the absorption and refractive index of the g...