Progress Toward A Thermal Beam Calcium Interferometer
Location
Salt Lake Community College
Start Date
5-7-2007 11:40 AM
Description
We report on the construction of a next-generation atom interferometer. Our research includes developing passive stabilization techniques, low-noise laser current drivers, high-speed scan-balancing lock circuits, and high-speed, low-noise photo-detecting units. Our efforts have lead to developing an extremely stable laser locked to an ultra-high finesse optical cavity for use in a Ramsey-Borde interferometer scheme. The interferometer itself is based on a thermal calcium beam and will be upgraded in the future to a dual species Ca/Sr interferometer sensitive enough to improve measurements of possible time variance of the fine structure constant. Emphasis is given to the construction of the laser used in developing the interferometer.
Progress Toward A Thermal Beam Calcium Interferometer
Salt Lake Community College
We report on the construction of a next-generation atom interferometer. Our research includes developing passive stabilization techniques, low-noise laser current drivers, high-speed scan-balancing lock circuits, and high-speed, low-noise photo-detecting units. Our efforts have lead to developing an extremely stable laser locked to an ultra-high finesse optical cavity for use in a Ramsey-Borde interferometer scheme. The interferometer itself is based on a thermal calcium beam and will be upgraded in the future to a dual species Ca/Sr interferometer sensitive enough to improve measurements of possible time variance of the fine structure constant. Emphasis is given to the construction of the laser used in developing the interferometer.