Laser cooling of a metastable argon atomic beam

Authors

Carlos A. Avila, Florida International University

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Science (MS)

Major/Program

Physics

First Advisor's Name

Kenneth Hardy

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

John Landrum

Third Advisor's Name

Stephan Mintz

Fourth Advisor's Name

Yifu Zhu

Date of Defense

7-26-1996

Abstract

A production of low velocity and monoenergetic atomic beams would increase the resolution in spectroscopic studies and many other experiments in atomic physics. Laser Cooling uses the radiation pressure to decelerate and cool atoms. The effusing from a glow discharge metastable argon atomic beam is affected by a counterpropagating laser light tuned to the cycling transition in argon. The Zeeman shift caused by a spatially varying magnetic field compensates for the changing Doppler shift that takes the atoms out of resonance as they decelerated. Deceleration and velocity bunching of atoms to a final velocity that depends on the detuning of the laser relative to a frequency of the transition have been observed. Time-of-Flight (TOF) spectroscopy is used to examine the velocity distribution of the cooled atomic beam. These TOF studies of the laser cooled atomic beam demonstrate the utility of laser deceleration for atomic-beam "velocity selection".

Identifier

FI14032375

Comments

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Recommended Citation

Avila, Carlos A., "Laser cooling of a metastable argon atomic beam" (1996). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1342.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1342