Browsing by Author "Simien, Clayton Earl"

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    422 nm laser
    (2005) Simien, Clayton Earl; Killian, Thomas C.
    A 422 nm laser was constructed for the purpose of studying a strontium ultra-cold neutral plasma. Since strontium ions have atomic lines in the visible, we can optically image the plasma via the 88 Sr+ 2S1/2 → 2 P1/2 transition using 422 nm light. We produce light at this wavelength by converting infrared light at 844 nm from a commercial semiconductor infrared diode laser via second-harmonic generation in an semi-monolithic linear enhancement cavity. This thesis will cover the experimental details pertaining to nonlinear optics, optical resonator design, and locking electronics used to create a 422 nm laser.
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    Early time ion dynamics and progress towards laser cooling in an ultracold neutral plasma
    (2008) Simien, Clayton Earl; Killian, Thomas C.
    The progress toward laser cooling an ultracold plasma is presented in this thesis. Ultracold neutral plasmas are created by photo-ionizing laser cooled Strontium atoms. Initially this system is very strongly coupled, however the ions rapidly heat up leaving the plasma on the borderline of the strongly coupled regime. To counteract the effects of this heating an attempt to laser cool the ions in the system is undertaken. However, from these experiments we discovered that velocity changing collisions occurring in the system prevented laser cooling. In order to determine the collisions rate, a collision model was developed to simulate the spectra of the plasma from optical pumping experiments. These experiments and simulations in fact demonstrate that collisions are occurring at a fast enough rate to prevent ion cooling on the time scale of our experiment.