Antireflection coated semiconductor laser amplifier for Bose-Einstein condensation experiments

Abstract

We present a slave laser highly suitable for the preparation and detection of 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC). A highly anti-reflection coated laser diode serves as an optical amplifier, which requires neither active temperature stabilization nor dedicated equipment monitoring the spectral purity of the amplified light. The laser power can be controlled with a precision of 10 μW in 70 mW with relative fluctuations down to 2 × 10−4. Due to its simplicity and reliability, this slave laser will be a useful tool for laboratory, mobile, or even space-based cold-atom experiments. By the way of demonstration this slave laser was used as the sole 780 nm light-source in the production of 3 × 104 BECs in a hybrid magnetic/dipole trap.

Radio-frequency adiabatic potentials for guided atom-clock interferometry

“…This results in the typical Doppler-free saturation spectroscopy signal for 87 Rb and 85 Rb. Then its temporal derivative is calculated electronically (see [Bolpasi, 2014;Pandey et al, 2018] for details) and sent to an oscilloscope, where one can visualize the locking point. Our Master laser is locked at the |5S 1/2 , F = 2⟩ → |5P 3/2 , F = 1/3⟩ cross-over, blue detuned from the F 2 → F ′ 2, ν lock = ν 2,2 + 54.85 MHz.…”

“…In order to improve the repetition rate of the experiment, and also to ease the loading of BECs into the TAAP ring, we installed a dipole trap, which replaced the TOP trap as the sample preparation method 8 . This new system has allowed for production of BECs with a total of only 50 mW of laser light for the 2D-MOT and 3D-MOT [Pandey et al, 2018], although we normally operate with approximately 500 mW. The current setup (see Fig.…”