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

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The laser diode (Intelite MLD-780-100S5P) has a wavelength of 780 nm <strong>and</strong> an output<br />

power of 100 mW at a current of 120 mA. The diode is mounted <strong>in</strong><strong>to</strong> the cavity by<br />

plac<strong>in</strong>g it <strong>in</strong> a collimation tube (Thorlabs LT230P-B). This tube also houses a broadb<strong>and</strong><br />

AR coated aspheric lens (f = 4.5 mm) <strong>to</strong> collimate the output beam. The collimated<br />

beam hits a gold-coated, blazed diffraction grat<strong>in</strong>g with 1200 grooves/mm. The zeroth-<br />

order specular reflection serves as the output beam. The first-order diffracted beam<br />

is reflected back <strong>in</strong><strong>to</strong> the diode laser, complet<strong>in</strong>g the external laser cavity. The laser<br />

frequency can be adjusted by chang<strong>in</strong>g the grat<strong>in</strong>g angle us<strong>in</strong>g a piezo stack. Thermal<br />

stability is provided by actively stabiliz<strong>in</strong>g the temperature of the bronze baseplate of<br />

the external cavity diode laser with a thermo-electric cooler (TEC) <strong>and</strong> a PID feedback<br />

loop. The whole setup is housed <strong>in</strong> a plexiglass cover <strong>to</strong> isolate the laser from air currents<br />

<strong>and</strong> acoustic vibrations.<br />

Figure 4.7: MOT master laser.<br />

After the beam exits the diode laser hous<strong>in</strong>g the beam asymmetry is removed<br />

by an anamorphic prism pair. To protect the laser from damage due <strong>to</strong> back reflec-<br />

tions, the beam passes through an optical isola<strong>to</strong>r (ConOptics 712B). The beam then<br />

passes through an AOM with a frequency of 103 MHz. Only a few milliwatts of power<br />

are diffracted <strong>in</strong> this AOM, just enough <strong>to</strong> provide sufficient light for the saturated ab-<br />

sorption spectroscopy setup used <strong>to</strong> stabilize the laser frequency. A schematic of the<br />

53

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