The general research area of my project is on experimental ultracold atom physics, primarily on Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), with the objective of building an atomic transfer system necessary for a BEC experiment apparatus that is being built in Miami University. We use rubidium-87 atoms in our experiments, and part of the process of creating Rb-87 BECs is the transfer of cold atom clouds between several vacuum chambers of our BEC machine. Our setup consists of three chambers: the high-pressure side (HP), the low-pressure side (LP), and the BEC science cell. I will focus on two kinds of atom transfer in our setup: One is from the HP chamber to LP chamber, which uses a laser beam for transfer. The second kind is from the LP chamber to the BEC science chamber, which uses a system of magnetic coil pairs that are sequentially turned on and off to facilitate atom transport. Descriptions of the laser beam transfer scheme and of the magnetic transfer sequence will be presented. And I think this lab experience can also make me better adapt to the future lab in graduate school.
Author: Yuchen Lin
Faculty Advisor: Edward Carlo Samson, Department of Physics
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