Interactions in Dense Atom Traps

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

The goals of this project are to produce dense sources of laser-cooled atoms, and to understand the collisional and radiative properties of these dense atoms. The dense atom cloud of laser-cooled rubidium atoms will be generated in a holographic atom trap (HAT), which is produced by sending a high power continuous-wave YAG laser through a holographic phase element, then imagining the diffraction pattern onto a cloud of atoms formed inside a dark magneto-optical trap. The effects of multiply scattered light depend crucially on the off-resonant absorption spectrum of the atoms, which is predicted to have a narrow linewidth, but a large maximum value, making the densest HAT clouds optically thick even when the laser light is tuned far off resonance. Measurements of this effect will be made. The high densities in the HAT will also allow for the first time systematic studies of ultracold collision frequency shifts outside the context of atomic clocks.