RUI: Experiments on Trapped Atoms and Dielectric-Barrier Discharges

Calvin University, Grand Rapids MI

Investigators

Abstract

This RUI activity focuses on two projects. The first project uses a laser-cooling and trapping system for the measurement of metastable lifetimes in magneto-optically trapped krypton and argon, using a method of photon counting and metastable-state quenching to determine the single-atom spontaneous decay rate to a few percent. The second project builds on an earlier discovery and characterization of one-dimensional spatiotemporal patterns in a novel dielectric-barrier discharge (DBD) system, a class of high-voltage, ac-driven gaseous discharges that typically operate in the atmospheric pressure range and produce reactive chemical species and intense excimer fluorescence. This pattern formation is of basic interest in the field of non-linear dynamics and may hold promise in various diagnostic and/or control schemes in DBD applications.