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Experiments to Control Atom Number and Phase-Space Density in ...

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MOT beams<br />

MOT<br />

Mirror M1<br />

APD 2<br />

CO 2 beam<br />

Lens L1<br />

Lens L3<br />

MOT<br />

image<br />

D-shaped<br />

mirror M2<br />

x<br />

y<br />

Lens L2<br />

z<br />

APD 1<br />

Figure 8.8: Experimental setup for locat<strong>in</strong>g the CO2 laser beam with<strong>in</strong> the trapped<br />

cloud of MOT a<strong>to</strong>ms. The three pairs of retro-reflected MOT beams excite fluorescence<br />

<strong>in</strong> the a<strong>to</strong>ms of the MOT. The CO2 beam is located <strong>in</strong> the general vic<strong>in</strong>ity of the trapped<br />

cloud of a<strong>to</strong>ms. The mirror M1 reflects the fluorescence light from the MOT. The lens<br />

L1 collects the fluorescence light <strong>and</strong> creates an image of the MOT. In the image plane a<br />

D-shaped mirror (M2) cuts the fluorescent signal <strong>in</strong><strong>to</strong> two halves. These are <strong>in</strong>dividually<br />

focused by two lenses (L2 <strong>and</strong> L3) on<strong>to</strong> two avalanche pho<strong>to</strong>diodes (APD1 <strong>and</strong> APD2).<br />

the optical access that is available <strong>to</strong> collect the fluorescence light. Ideally the collection<br />

angle is maximized <strong>to</strong> capture a large number of scattered pho<strong>to</strong>ns from the MOT a<strong>to</strong>ms.<br />

Particular care is taken <strong>to</strong> reduce any scattered light from the MOT beams as much as<br />

possible <strong>in</strong> order <strong>to</strong> optimize the signal <strong>to</strong> noise ratio. In the image plane of the lens L1<br />

the signal of the MOT is split 50:50 <strong>in</strong> the vertical dimension. The light is then collected<br />

with two f = 25 mm lenses (L2 <strong>and</strong> L3) <strong>and</strong> focused on<strong>to</strong> two avalanche pho<strong>to</strong>diodes<br />

(APDs). To do balanced detection the signals of the two APDs are substracted from<br />

each other.<br />

Figure 8.9 shows the measured noise spectra of (a) the electronic noise <strong>in</strong> combi-<br />

nation with the noise caused by scattered light without a<strong>to</strong>ms trapped <strong>in</strong> the MOT <strong>and</strong><br />

(b) the noise of the system with a<strong>to</strong>ms trapped <strong>in</strong> the MOT. These spectra clearly show<br />

157

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