Cette thèse présente la production d'un gaz dégénéré de rubidium 87 dans le régime quasibidimensionnel (2D) et l'étude des modes collectifs de ce gaz. Nous montrons que le gaz quasi-2D peut être amené en dessous du seuil de la transition Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless. Nous montrons le caractère superfluide du gaz dégénéré par la présence des modes quadrupolaire et ciseaux, dont nous mesurons les fréquences d'oscillation. Son caractère bidimensionnel est vérifié par la mesure de la fréquence du mode monopolaire. Nous mettons en évidence l'influence du confinement transverse et de la troisième dimension sur la fréquence de ce mode. Pour produire le superfluide, un condensat de Bose-Einstein est d'abord produit dans un piège quadrupolaire bouché par un faisceau laser très désaccordé et soigneusement optimisé pour réduire les pertes Majorana par renversement de spin. Le condensat est ensuite transféré vers un « piège habillé », c'est-à-dire un potentiel adiabatique dans lequel les atomes sont habillés par un champ radiofréquence. Pour rendre le piège plus anisotrope, le gradient magnétique est augmenté au maximum, ce qui nous permet d'explorer le régime quasi-2D pour le gaz de Bose. Les deux types de piège utilisés sont caractérisés en détail. Nous tirons parti de la souplesse du potentiel adiabatique pour exciter et étudier les modes collectifs. / This thesis presents the production of a degenerate rubidium 87 gas in the quasi two-dimensional (2D) regime and the study of collective modes of this gas. We show that the gas can be prepared below the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition threshold. The superfluid nature of the gas is demonstrated through the observation of the quadrupole and scissors modes. We measure their oscillation frequencies. The bidimensional character of the gas is evidenced through the measurement of the monopole mode frequency. We show the influence of the third, hidden, dimension on this oscillation frequency. In order to produce the superfluid, a Bose-Einstein condensate is first produced in a magnetic quadrupole trap plugged by a far off-resonance laser beam, carefully optimized to overcome Majorana spin ip losses. The condensate is then transferred to the “ dressed trap “, i.e. the adiabatic potential seen by the radiofrequency dressed atoms. We ramp up the magnetic gradient to its maximum value in order to increase the trap anisotropy, and eventually reach the quasi-2D regime for the Bose gas. The two kinds of trap used are characterized in detail. We take advantage of the adiabatic potential smoothness in order to excite and study the collective modes.

New measurements of the masses of the isotopes⁸,⁹,¹¹Li were made using recently commissioned TITAN Penning trap mass spectrometer at TRIUMF. The measurement of the halo nucleus ¹¹Li represents a new standard in Penning trap mass spectrometry, as it is the shortest lived, t₁/₂ = 8.8 ms, isotope ever weighed using this technique. Low energy, E = 20 keV, beams of these radioactive isotopes were produced using the ISAC facility. These were subsequentlycooled and bunched using a square-wave-driven Radio- Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) ion guide, which was filled with hydrogen gas. The cooled ion bunches were then passed into a Penning trap where the mass measurements were made. A description of the RFQ in the ISAC hall is given along with some results from the commissioning of the device. A new set of harmonic deceleration optics is presented which have been successfully used to inject ions into the RFQ. Cooling of lithium ions with high DC efficiencies of 20%, in helium, and 40%, in hydrogen, are shown. Extraction of extremely short ion bunches, 30 ns FWHM, is also demonstrated. Storage times for stable lithium ions in helium and hydrogen were investigated. It was found that lithium ions could be cooled in hydrogen for up to 30 ms without significant losses whereas cooling in helium lead to exponential losses with a half-life of 5.7(1)ms. The TITAN Penning trap is described and the ⁸,⁹,¹¹Li data presented. Final values for the mass excess of ∆(⁸Li) = 20945.70(38) keV, ∆(⁹Li) = 24954.80(60) keV and ∆(¹¹Li) = 40728.1(12) keV are obtained. The ⁹,¹¹Li results are then used to obtain a new value for two neutron separation energy of ¹¹Li, S₂n = 369.3(1.3) keV. This agrees with the recent measurement from the MISTRAL spectrometer, 376(5) keV, at the two sigma level, but shows over three standard deviations from the most recent atomic mass evaluation, 300(20) keV / Science, Faculty of / Physics and Astronomy, Department of / Graduate

Globally, changes in plant community structure have occurred in ecosystems where humans have altered natural disturbance regimes. Many plants have adaptive life histories and morphological traits that have coevolved with fire and herbivory, which allows them to thrive despite repeated tissue losses. Therefore, altering the type, frequency, or severity of disturbance affects individual plant growth and competition among species. When these changes benefit or disadvantage different plant functional groups (i.e., grasses, shrubs, trees) it alters ecosystem structure and function. Understanding and predicting these vegetation changes, is critical for conservation and management of biodiversity, wildlife habitat, livestock forage, and water. Savannas are characterized by the codominance of grasses and trees, but the proportion of tree cover responds dynamically to changes in precipitation, fire, and herbivory. These factors often cause a ‘demographic bottleneck,’ which delays transitions from sapling size (1 m). In this dissertation, I investigated several fire × herbivory interactions to gain a mechanistic understanding of sapling recruitment processes that ultimately affect savanna structure. I made use of a long-term experiment that used semi-permeable fencing to manipulate presence and absence of different types of herbivores, to explore how fire and different combinations of domestic cattle, meso-wildlife, and megaherbivores (elephant and giraffe) affect sapling recruitment. First, I found clear evidence that a wide range of tree height classes resprout after being top-killed by fire, but they were all subsequently kept short by meso-wildlife browsing. Elephants played a key role in suppressing the largest resprouts after fire possibly because fire had reduced the presence of ant mutualists that defend the trees. Second, I found that in the absence of fire, cattle and wildlife indirectly affected saplings by altering competition with neighboring vegetation. Saplings competed with grass and trees during above-average rainfall years. Bare ground—a condition often caused by overgrazing—was positively associated with sapling growth. The highest sapling growth, however, occurred where large neighbor trees were absent, a condition maintained primarily by elephants browsing and damaging large neighbor trees. Finally, I found that saplings conditioned by pre-fire wildlife “browsing legacies” had high tolerance to combined fire and wildlife browsing. These results help explain how saplings tolerate repeated tissue loss to disturbance. Understanding how interactions between fire and herbivory affect sapling recruitment will help managers effectively use natural disturbance processes to manage savanna structure and function.

This thesis provides a summary of the laser system constructed in the Quantum Degenerate Gases Laboratory for laser cooling and trapping of 85/87Rband 6Li as well as of experiments that have been pursued in our lab to date. The first chapter provides an overview of the experimental focus of the QDG lab. The second and third chapters provide the fundamental theory behind laser cooling and trapping. The fourth chapter provides details of the laser system. The fifth chapter describes an experiment performed on the subject of dual-injection, performed in collaboration with Dr. James Booth of the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) involving the dual-injection of a single slave amplifier. The last chapter describes the progress made on the experimental setup needed for the study of Feshbach resonances between 85/87Rb and 6Li and the photoassociative formation of molecules.

This thesis provides a summary of the laser system constructed in the Quantum Degenerate Gases Laboratory for laser cooling and trapping of 85/87Rband 6Li as well as of experiments that have been pursued in our lab to date. The first chapter provides an overview of the experimental focus of the QDG lab. The second and third chapters provide the fundamental theory behind laser cooling and trapping. The fourth chapter provides details of the laser system. The fifth chapter describes an experiment performed on the subject of dual-injection, performed in collaboration with Dr. James Booth of the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) involving the dual-injection of a single slave amplifier. The last chapter describes the progress made on the experimental setup needed for the study of Feshbach resonances between 85/87Rb and 6Li and the photoassociative formation of molecules.

This thesis provides a summary of the laser system constructed in the Quantum Degenerate Gases Laboratory for laser cooling and trapping of 85/87Rband 6Li as well as of experiments that have been pursued in our lab to date. The first chapter provides an overview of the experimental focus of the QDG lab. The second and third chapters provide the fundamental theory behind laser cooling and trapping. The fourth chapter provides details of the laser system. The fifth chapter describes an experiment performed on the subject of dual-injection, performed in collaboration with Dr. James Booth of the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) involving the dual-injection of a single slave amplifier. The last chapter describes the progress made on the experimental setup needed for the study of Feshbach resonances between 85/87Rb and 6Li and the photoassociative formation of molecules. / Science, Faculty of / Physics and Astronomy, Department of / Graduate

This thesis improves on the design of the Optical Trap Display (OTD), presented in 2018 [1]. Contributions include: real time animation; single beam, multiparticle suspension, point primitive anisotropic scattering, and virtual image approximation. First, real time animation was demonstrated on the OTD for the first time in full color at up to 30Hz refresh. Second, multi-particle systems allow for scaling of the display by a multiplicative factor, potentially up to orders of magnitude greater than the first OTD. Third, anisotropic scattering of point primitives was shown for individual suspended particles and multiple simultaneously suspended particles. Fourth, virtual images have been previously considered impossible in volumetric displays but by using perspective projections we have shown in simulation and experiment for the first time that an effect similar to a virtual image can be created.

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The cylindrical ion trap (CIT) is made up of two planar endcap electrodes and a cylindrical ring electrode. The investigation of simpler geometries like CIT has been started off in recent years with a view towards miniaturization. As a step towards this, numerical studies on CITs were carried out in our laboratory. Here in this study, our motive is to characterize a CIT through experiments. We have designed a mass spectrometer where a CIT is used as the mass analyzer. The trap performance was observed by varying six parameters associated with our experiment. The parameters are (1) the ionization voltage, (2) the ramp time, (3) the ionization time, (4) the cooling time, (5) the dead time and (6) the bias voltage applied across the filaments. All the experiments have been performed in the mass selective boundary ejection mode.

An apparatus that combines single molecule fluorescence, optical trapping and bright-field microscopy is presented. Given the spread over orders of magnitude of the light intensities for the different techniques, special considerations in choosing the spectral regions for each were taken. Moreover, imaging single molecules in a background of intense light from the infra red laser used for the optical trap has been shown to result in enhanced photo-bleaching due to two-photon processes. A scheme for fast time-sharing was implemented in which the fluorescence excitation light and the trap light alternate in fast succession. This eliminates two-photon effects and enables stable manipulation using the optical trap. The simultaneous use of the bright-field imaging in differential interference contrast arrangement enables observation of refractile objects in the sample over large distances. The apparatus was designed for future use in studies of molecular motor regulation. However, to demonstrate the functionality of the system, the rotational diffusion of a micro-sphere fluorescently labelled at one spot was measured. / text