25.07.2013 Views

Experiments with Supersonic Beams as a Source of Cold Atoms

Experiments with Supersonic Beams as a Source of Cold Atoms

Experiments with Supersonic Beams as a Source of Cold Atoms

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Magnetic flux density [arb. units]<br />

25<br />

20<br />

15<br />

10<br />

5<br />

0<br />

280 320 360 400 440 480<br />

Time [s]<br />

Figure 4.13: A temporal pr<strong>of</strong>ile <strong>of</strong> the magnetic field in the center <strong>of</strong> the slowing coil.<br />

The trace is a numerical integration <strong>of</strong> the current induced in a pickup coil placed in<br />

the center <strong>of</strong> the slowing coil.<br />

current in the coil reached its peak value after 35 μs, the field does not reach its peak<br />

for another 5 − 10 μs. Also, while the current shuts <strong>of</strong>f <strong>with</strong>in 7 μs, the field drops<br />

linearly over this time to 35% <strong>of</strong> its peak but decays exponentially from there <strong>with</strong> a<br />

time constant <strong>of</strong> 11 μs.<br />

4.4.4 18 Stage Apparatus and Vacuum Chamber<br />

To make the coilgun work correctly, the coils must be held in alignment in<br />

vacuum. The coils are held in copper discs by vented screws. The copper discs have<br />

three holes drilled into them, and this is how the entire <strong>as</strong>sembly is held together<br />

and aligned. The discs are slid onto three stainless steel rods, <strong>with</strong> stainless steel<br />

spacers between each copper disc. This produces a center to center spacing between<br />

each coil <strong>of</strong> 1.41 cm. Instead <strong>of</strong> spacers, a stainless steel post is used on two <strong>of</strong> the<br />

rods between coils 7 and 8, and between coils 13 and 14. These posts are mounted<br />

in a stainless steel block that is secured by set screws in the vacuum chamber. The<br />

83

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!