Spectroscopy of ultracold metastable hydrogen : in pursuit of a precision measurement
Name
70159718-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
6.37 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
4f184b42272b33b832f70314d730694f
Author(s)
Vant, Kendra Margaret Denny
Advisor(s)
Daniel Kleppner.
Date Issued
2005
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
This thesis describes the first observations in trapped hydrogen of optical transitions starting from the metastable 2S state. It covers in detail the design and construction of two stabilized diode laser systems for performing spectroscopy of the 2S-3P and 2S-8S transitions. Spectroscopy of the one photon 2S-3P transition in hydrogen is demonstrated both by the depletion of the metastable 2S atom state and the absorption of the 2S-3P laser light. A model for absorption spectroscopy as a probe for metastable number is developed and absorption is shown to offer a major improvement over current detection methods. In the course of these experiments, techniques with diode lasers were developed that will be used later in the proposed precision measurements of 2S-nS transitions. The design, construction and characterization of the diode laser system for performing spectroscopy of the two photon 2S-8S transition is explained and recommended parameters for a proposed signal search are outlined.
Description
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2005.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-145).
Subjects
Physics.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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