Cover slip external cavity diode laser

The design of a 671 nm diode laser with a mode-hop-free tuning range of 40 GHz is described. This long tuning range is achieved by simultaneously ramping the external cavity length with the laser injection current. The external cavity consists of a microscope cover slip mounted on piezoelectric actuators. In such a configuration the laser output pointing remains fixed, independent of its frequency. Using a diode with an output power of 5-7 mW, the laser linewidth was found to be smaller than 30 MHz. This cover slip cavity and feedforward laser current control system is simple, economical, robust, and easy to use for spectroscopy, as we demonstrate with lithium vapor and lithium atom beam experiments.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Review of Scientific Instruments 7/29/0

ATOM OPTICS, CORE ELECTRONS, AND THE VAN DER WAALS POTENTIAL

This dissertation describes new measurements of the van der Waals (vdW) potential energy for atoms near a surface. The measurements presented here were accomplished by studying diffraction a beam of atoms transmitted through a nanograting. I will describe how we improved precision by a factor of 10 over previous diffraction measurements by studying how different types of atoms interact with the same surface. As a result of this new precision, we were able to show for the first time the contribution of atomic core electrons to the atom-surface potential, and experimentally test different atomic structure calculation methods.In addition, this dissertation will describe how changing the width of the grating bars to achieve a particular "magic" grating bar width or rotating a grating to a particular "magic" angle allows us to determine both the atom-surface potential strength and the geometry of the grating. This represents an improvement over several recent studies where uncertainties in the nanograting geometry limited precision in the measurements of the vdW potential.For a complementary measurement, also discussed in this dissertation, we collaborated with the Vigue group in Toulouse, France. In this collaboration we used an atom interferometer to measure the phase shift due to transmission through a nanograting. By combining diffraction data from Tucson with interferometry data from Toulouse we improved the precision of interferometry measurements of the atom-surface potential of a single atomic species by almost a factor of 10 over previous interferometric measurements of the vdW potential. These interferometry measurements also serve to measure the shape of the vdW potential and set a limit on non-Newtonian gravitational interactions at 1-2 nm length scales.Finally, this dissertation will discuss how nanogratings with optimized geometry can improve atom interferometers, for example, with blazed gratings. We discuss next generation atom-surface potential measurements and examine new ways of analyzing diffraction data

HIGH-RESOLUTION UV SPECTRA OF BENZENE ISOTOPOMERS AND DIMERS IN HELIUM NANODROPLETS

Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, Princeton UniversityWe present high-resolution ultraviolet spectra of various benzene isotopomers and their dimers in helium nanodroplets in the region of the first Herzberg-Teller allowed vibronic transition $^{1}B_{2u} \leftarrow {^{1}}A_{1g} 6^{1}_{0}$ (a.k.a. the $A^{0}_{0}$ transition) at $\sim 260$ nm. Spectra were recorded in beam depletion and laser-induced fluorescence excitation. Unlike for many larger aromatic molecules, the monomer spectra consist of a single ``zero phonon'' line, blueshifted by about $30 cm ^{-1}$ from the gas phase value. The rotational moments of inertia of $C_{6}H_{6}$ are found to be at least 6 or 7 times larger than in the gas phase. The dimers present the same vibronic fine structure (though modestly compressed) as previously observed in the gas phase. The fluorescence lifetime and quantum yield of $(C_{6}H_{6})$ are found to be equal to those of $C_{6}H_{6}$, implying substantial inhibition of excimer formation in the dimer in helium nanodroplets