Basic Atomic Physics

Contains reports on five research projects.National Science Foundation Grant PHY 89-19381National Science Foundation Grant PHY 92-21489U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-90-J-1322Joint Services Electronics Program Contract DAAL03-92-C-0001National Science Foundation Grant PHY 89-21769U.S. Army - Office of Scientific Research Grant DAAL03-92-G-0229U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-89-J-1207U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-90-J-164

Optics and interferometry with Na2 molecules, Phys

We have produced an intense, pure beam of sodium molecules (Na 2 ) by using light forces to separate the atomic and molecular species in a seeded supersonic beam. We used diffraction from a microfabricated grating to study the atomic and molecular sodium in the beam. Using three of these gratings, we constructed a molecule interferometer with fully separated beams and high contrast fringes. We measured both the real and imaginary parts of the index of refraction of neon gas for Na 2 molecule de Broglie waves by inserting a gas cell in one arm of the interferometer

Research Report in the Framework of the Project Seminar on Tourism organized by Prof. Dr. Bernhard Giesen (Winter Seminar 06/07)

The empirical study results from fieldwork on two South German castles, Burg Hohenzollern and Meersburg. Its aim is to inquire into the social construction of tourism, i.e. to grasp touristic experiences in statu nascendi. Starting with the assumption that modern travelling is linked to the search of the sacred, the central question was how exactly the crossing from everyday life to festivity happens. The collected data suggest, however, that a journey, at least a journey to a medieval castle in Southern Germany, is not just a singular transcendence from the ordinary to the extraordinary. Tourists can rather be observed how they permanently shift between everyday life and festivity. In this sense order and chaos, fact and fiction, and seriousness and playfulness constitute each other