Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rhode Island, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-143).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-136). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

The sculpting of ultracold neutral plasmas represents a frontier in the experimental study of collective modes in strongly coupled plasmas. By extending the range of accessible length scales to less than tens of microns we gain access to a regime where The sculpting of ultracold neutral plasmas represents a frontier in the experimental study of collective modes in strongly coupled plasmas. By extending the range of accessible length scales to less than tens of microns we gain access to a regime where strong coupling's effects are predicted yet largely untested. To this effort, high resolution optical systems were designed, bench tested and implemented for sculpting and imaging ultracold neutral plasmas. Many complications and unexpected effects were documented to assist future experimental design considerations, including, those due to saturation and optical thickness, both of which limit the utility of 461 nm push beam modulations. It was concluded that sculpting should be performed on the 412 nm ionizing beam and real-time density space analysis is reliable for spatial frequencies up to 5 cyc/mm by using 4X magnified imaging. Higher spatial frequencies benefit from velocity space analysis due to extremely fast dynamics and low intensity levels.

Recent advances in using microscopes in ultracold atom experiment have allowed experimenters for the first time to directly observe and manipulate individual atoms in individual lattice sites. This technique enhances our capability to simulate strongly correlated systems such as Mott insulator and high temperature superconductivity. Currently, all ultracold atom experiments with high resolution imaging capability use bosonic atoms. In this thesis, I present our progress towards creating the fermionic version of the microscope experiment which is more suitable for simulating real condensed matter systems. Lithium is ideal due to the existence of both fermionic and bosonic isotopes, its light mass, which means faster experiment time scales that suppresses many sources of technical noise, and also due to the existence of a broad Feshbach resonance, which can be used to tune the inter-particle interaction strength over a wide range from attractive, non-interacting, and repulsive interactions. A high numerical aperture objective will be used to image and manipulate the atoms with single lattice site resolution. This setup should allow us to implement the Hubbard hamiltonian which could describe interesting quantum phases such as antiferromagnetism, d-wave superfluidity, and high temperature superconductivity. I will also discuss the feasibility of the Raman sideband cooling method for cooling the atoms during the imaging process. We have also developed a new electronic control system to control the sequence of the experiment. This electronic system is very scalable in order to keep up with the increasing complexity of atomic physics experiments. Furthermore, the system is also designed to be more precise in order to keep up with the faster time scale of lithium experiment. / Physics

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This thesis describes the advances made towards a dual-species magneto-optical trap (MOT) of Li and Rb for use in photoassociation spectroscopy, Feshbach resonance studies, and, as long-term aspirations, the formation of ultracold heteronuclear polar molecules. The initial discussion will focus on a brief theoretical overview of laser cooling and trapping and the production of ultracold molecules from a cold atom source. Subsequently, details of the experimental system, including those pertaining to the required laser light, the vacuum chamber, and the computer control system will be presented. Finally, preliminary optimization and characterization measurements showing the performance of a single species Li MOT are introduced. These measurements demonstrated the loading of over 8 x 107 Li atoms directly into a MOT without the need for a Zeeman slower.

A study of ion oscillations in the annular regions of a strontium plasma is reported. An ultracold neutral plasma is formed by photoionizing the 1 P 1 electrons using a pulsed dye laser' and absorption spectroscopy is done on the 2 S ½ - 2 P ½ transition of the Sr+ ion. The kinetic energy of the ions is then calculated using Doppler broadening of the spectrum. The variation of temperature with time is fit to a theoretical model of kinetic energy oscillation. The result of the fitting is presented in this thesis. The importance of an annular analysis of the absorption spectrum is demonstrated and the mathematical procedures employed to calculate the kinetic energy are developed. The oscillations are observed to be damped which is a characteristic of strongly coupled plasmas.

This thesis describes the advances made towards a dual-species magneto-optical trap (MOT) of Li and Rb for use in photoassociation spectroscopy, Feshbach resonance studies, and, as long-term aspirations, the formation of ultracold heteronuclear polar molecules. The initial discussion will focus on a brief theoretical overview of laser cooling and trapping and the production of ultracold molecules from a cold atom source. Subsequently, details of the experimental system, including those pertaining to the required laser light, the vacuum chamber, and the computer control system will be presented. Finally, preliminary optimization and characterization measurements showing the performance of a single species Li MOT are introduced. These measurements demonstrated the loading of over 8 x 107 Li atoms directly into a MOT without the need for a Zeeman slower.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also in a digital version from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

This thesis describes the advances made towards a dual-species magneto-optical trap (MOT) of Li and Rb for use in photoassociation spectroscopy, Feshbach resonance studies, and, as long-term aspirations, the formation of ultracold heteronuclear polar molecules. The initial discussion will focus on a brief theoretical overview of laser cooling and trapping and the production of ultracold molecules from a cold atom source. Subsequently, details of the experimental system, including those pertaining to the required laser light, the vacuum chamber, and the computer control system will be presented. Finally, preliminary optimization and characterization measurements showing the performance of a single species Li MOT are introduced. These measurements demonstrated the loading of over 8 x 107 Li atoms directly into a MOT without the need for a Zeeman slower. / Science, Faculty of / Physics and Astronomy, Department of / Graduate