600 research outputs found
Laser frequency combs for astronomical observations
A direct measurement of the universe's expansion history could be made by
observing in real time the evolution of the cosmological redshift of distant
objects. However, this would require measurements of Doppler velocity drifts of
about 1 centimeter per second per year, and astronomical spectrographs have not
yet been calibrated to this tolerance. We demonstrate the first use of a laser
frequency comb for wavelength calibration of an astronomical telescope. Even
with a simple analysis, absolute calibration is achieved with an equivalent
Doppler precision of approximately 9 meters per second at about 1.5 micrometers
- beyond state-of-the-art accuracy. We show that tracking complex, time-varying
systematic effects in the spectrograph and detector system is a particular
advantage of laser frequency comb calibration. This technique promises an
effective means for modeling and removal of such systematic effects to the
accuracy required by future experiments to see direct evidence of the
universe's putative acceleration.Comment: Science, 5th September 2008. 18 pages, 7 figures (7 JPG files),
including Supporting Online Material. Version with higher resolution figures
available at http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~mmurphy/pub.htm
Homodyne locking of a squeezer
We report on the successful implementation of a new approach to locking the
frequencies of an OPO-based squeezed-vacuum source and its driving laser. The
technique allows the simultaneous measurement of the phase-shifts induced by a
cavity, which may be used for the purposes of frequency-locking, as well as the
simultaneous measurement of the sub-quantum-noise-limited (sub-QNL) phase
quadrature output of the OPO. The homodyne locking technique is cheap, easy to
implement and has the distinct advantage that subsequent homodyne measurements
are automatically phase-locked. The homodyne locking technique is also unique
in that it is a sub-QNL frequency discriminator.Comment: Accepted to Optics Letter
Observing the Profile of an Atom Laser Beam
We report on an investigation of the beam profile of an atom laser extracted
from a magnetically trapped Rb Bose-Einstein condensate. The transverse
momentum distribution is magnified by a curved mirror for matter waves and a
momentum resolution of 1/60 of a photon recoil is obtained. We find the
transverse momentum distribution to be determined by the mean-field potential
of the residing condensate, which leads to a non-smooth transverse density
distribution. Our experimental data are compared with a full 3D simulation of
the output coupling process and we find good agreement.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Sub-milliKelvin spatial thermometry of a single Doppler cooled ion in a Paul trap
We report on observations of thermal motion of a single, Doppler-cooled ion
along the axis of a linear radio-frequency quadrupole trap. We show that for a
harmonic potential the thermal occupation of energy levels leads to Gaussian
distribution of the ion's axial position. The dependence of the spatial thermal
spread on the trap potential is used for precise calibration of our imaging
system's point spread function and sub-milliKelvin thermometry. We employ this
technique to investigate the laser detuning dependence of the Doppler
temperature.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Coherent transport of neutral atoms in spin-dependent optical lattice potentials
We demonstrate the controlled coherent transport and splitting of atomic wave
packets in spin-dependent optical lattice potentials. Such experiments open
intriguing possibilities for quantum state engineering of many body states.
After first preparing localized atomic wave functions in an optical lattice
through a Mott insulating phase, we place each atom in a superposition of two
internal spin states. Then state selective optical potentials are used to split
the wave function of a single atom and transport the corresponding wave packets
in two opposite directions. Coherence between the wave packets of an atom
delocalized over up to 7 lattice sites is demonstrated.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure
Thin-disk laser pump schemes for large number of passes and moderate pump source quality
Novel thin-disk laser pump layouts are proposed yielding an increased number
of passes for a given pump module size and pump source quality. These novel
layouts result from a general scheme which bases on merging two simpler pump
optics arrangements. Some peculiar examples can be realized by adapting
standard commercially available pump optics simply by intro ducing an
additional mirror-pair. More pump passes yield better efficiency, opening the
way for usage of active materials with low absorption. In a standard multi-pass
pump design, scaling of the number of beam passes brings ab out an increase of
the overall size of the optical arrangement or an increase of the pump source
quality requirements. Such increases are minimized in our scheme, making them
eligible for industrial applicationsComment: 16 pages, 9 figure
Coherence in Microchip Traps
We report the coherent manipulation of internal states of neutral atoms in a
magnetic microchip trap. Coherence lifetimes exceeding 1 s are observed with
atoms at distances of m from the microchip surface. The coherence
lifetime in the chip trap is independent of atom-surface distance within our
measurement accuracy, and agrees well with the results of similar measurements
in macroscopic magnetic traps. Due to the absence of surface-induced
decoherence, a miniaturized atomic clock with a relative stability in the
range can be realized. For applications in quantum information
processing, we propose to use microwave near-fields in the proximity of chip
wires to create potentials that depend on the internal state of the atoms.Comment: Revised version, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett., 4
pages, 4 figure
Comb-calibrated solar spectroscopy through a multiplexed single-mode fiber channel
We investigate a new scheme for astronomical spectrograph calibration using
the laser frequency comb at the Solar Vacuum Tower Telescope on Tenerife. Our
concept is based upon a single-mode fiber channel, that simultaneously feeds
the spectrograph with comb light and sunlight. This yields nearly perfect
spatial mode matching between the two sources. In combination with the absolute
calibration provided by the frequency comb, this method enables extremely
robust and accurate spectroscopic measurements. The performance of this scheme
is compared to a sequence of alternating comb and sunlight, and to absorption
lines from Earth's atmosphere. We also show how the method can be used for
radial-velocity detection by measuring the well-explored 5-minute oscillations
averaged over the full solar disk. Our method is currently restricted to solar
spectroscopy, but with further evolving fiber-injection techniques it could
become an option even for faint astronomical targets.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures. A video abstract for this paper is available on
youtube. For watching the video, please follow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oshdZgrt89I . The video abstract is also
available for streaming and download on the related article website of New
Journal of Physic
Precision spectroscopy of the 3s-3p fine structure doublet in Mg+
We apply a recently demonstrated method for precision spectroscopy on strong
transitions in trapped ions to measure both fine structure components of the
3s-3p transition in 24-Mg+ and 26-Mg+. We deduce absolute frequency reference
data for transition frequencies, isotope shifts and fine structure splittings
that are in particular useful for comparison with quasar absorption spectra,
which test possible space-time variations of the fine structure constant. The
measurement accuracy improves previous literature values, when existing, by
more than two orders of magnitude
A Frequency Comb calibrated Solar Atlas
The solar spectrum is a primary reference for the study of physical processes
in stars and their variation during activity cycles. In Nov 2010 an experiment
with a prototype of a Laser Frequency Comb (LFC) calibration system was
performed with the HARPS spectrograph of the 3.6m ESO telescope at La Silla
during which high signal-to-noise spectra of the Moon were obtained. We exploit
those Echelle spectra to study the optical integrated solar spectrum . The
DAOSPEC program is used to measure solar line positions through gaussian
fitting in an automatic way. We first apply the LFC solar spectrum to
characterize the CCDs of the HARPS spectrograph. The comparison of the LFC and
Th-Ar calibrated spectra reveals S-type distortions on each order along the
whole spectral range with an amplitude of +/-40 m/s. This confirms the pattern
found by Wilken et al. (2010) on a single order and extends the detection of
the distortions to the whole analyzed region revealing that the precise shape
varies with wavelength. A new data reduction is implemented to deal with CCD
pixel inequalities to obtain a wavelength corrected solar spectrum. By using
this spectrum we provide a new LFC calibrated solar atlas with 400 line
positions in the range of 476-530, and 175 lines in the 534-585 nm range. The
new LFC atlas improves the accuracy of individual lines by a significant factor
reaching a mean value of about 10 m/s. The LFC--based solar line wavelengths
are essentially free of major instrumental effects and provide a reference for
absolute solar line positions. We suggest that future LFC observations could be
used to trace small radial velocity changes of the whole solar photospheric
spectrum in connection with the solar cycle and for direct comparison with the
predicted line positions of 3D radiative hydrodynamical models of the solar
photosphere.Comment: Accept on the 15th of October 2013. 9 pages, 10 figures. ON-lINE data
A&A 201
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