Three-dimensional light sculptures and their interaction with atomic media: an experimentalist's guide

Selyem, Adam (2019) Three-dimensional light sculptures and their interaction with atomic media: an experimentalist's guide. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

In recent years great progress was made in the spatial control of light with dynamic phase and amplitude modulators such as spatial light modulators and digital micromirror devices. In this work we describe the theory and practice of light shaping with such devices, detailing the spatial control of amplitude, phase and polarisation of coherent laser beams. We use our expertise in generating and measuring light fields with spatially dependent polarisation structures to characterise the correlations between spatial modes and polarisation in such light fields. We do this by adapting concurrence, a quantum measure of entanglement, to these classical correlations.

One of the most promising application of coherent laser light is in the control of atomic media via atom-light interactions. In this work we describe the construction of simple external cavity diode lasers designed for the generation of resonant light for atomic physics applications. We exploit these lasers and spatial light modulators to create and measure three-dimensional atomic population structures in a warm rubidium vapour.

We also implement a magneto-optic and a dynamic dark spontaneous-force optical trap for rubidium. These traps produce dense (~ 10^11 cm^-3) and cold (~100 uK) clouds of rubidium atoms. We develop the theory of spatially dependent electromagnetically induced transparency in such traps using rate equations. We find that the absorption of linearly polarised light depends on the relative direction of a magnetic field and the light polarisation. We use the cold atom clouds to measure the direction of magnetic fields by using this dependence and laser beams with structured polarisation.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: optics, atomic physics, atom trapping, eit, spatial eit, hologram generation, structured polarisation, concurrence, magnetic sensing.
• Subjects: Q Science > QC Physics
• Colleges/Schools: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Supervisor's Name: Franke-Arnold, Dr. Sonja
• Date of Award: 2019
• Depositing User: Mr Adam Selyem
• Unique ID: glathesis:2019-74416
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 02 Oct 2019 08:53
• Last Modified: 17 Apr 2024 11:29
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.74416
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/74416

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