Creation of an all-optical Bose-Einstein condensate

  • Andres Ulibarrena Diaz

Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis

Abstract

This thesis reports on the experimental setup of the initial stages of the two-species, 87Rb and 85Rb, bosonic quantum gas microscope. In particular on the initial cooling and trapping of 87Rb atoms, with the creation of a large all-optically cooled Bose-Einstein condensate as a proof of the temperatures and densities achieved. In most cold atoms experiments, the Bose-Einstein condensate is achieved by evaporating the atoms in a magnetic trap.;Due to the swallowness of magnetic traps, the evaporation sequence takes longer than in all-optical traps. One of the reasons for using all-optical traps is to have a high repetition rate.;After a historical introduction to the topics of atomic physics, ultracold atoms in optical lattices and quantum simulation, we provide a basic summary on atomic physics and laser cooling. It is followed by a description of the experimental setup. The following chapters detail the cooling and trapping process, culminating in the creation of an all-optical Bose-Einstein condensate. The final chapter offers an overview on the future stages of the two-species bosonic quantum gas microscope.;In this thesis we detail our cooling techniques, such as grey molasses and the evaporative cooling process. We achieve temperatures as low as 4μK in clouds of 3*109 atoms after grey molasses and a BEC of 1.8*106 atoms with a total sequence time under 5s. There is still room for improvement in our BEC creation process and we are confident that higher numbers can be achieved.
Date of Award8 Jul 2020
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • University Of Strathclyde
SponsorsUniversity of Strathclyde
SupervisorStefan Kuhr (Supervisor) & Elmar Haller (Supervisor)

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