@article{2020-chandrashekara, Abstract = {
This thesis details the experimental efforts towards quantification of laser frequency noise by the use of an optical frequency discriminator and its suppression by means of measuring and reducing optical path length differences to prevent heating and loss of ultracold Caesium atoms trapped in two-dimensional state-dependent optical lattice. The discriminator used is a Fabry-PerĂ³t cavity with the side-of-fringe locking technique to be sensitive to frequency fluctuations of the input light field which are detected as changes in the intensity of the cavity signal. The measured noise spectrum revealed the performance of the laser in the frequency domain and was used to refine the same. A reduction in the laser linewidth was achieved in this manner. The same cavity was also transformed in to a transfer cavity to prevent long-term drift in the laser frequency. The frequency noise cannot be completely eliminated from the laser and so the task then became the reduction of the optical path length differences in the experiment by which the noise can manifest at the postion of the atoms. Conditions for achieving minimal path length differences were derived. Three methods were employed to measure the path length differences: A geometric distance measurement, an optical measurement using interferometry and at last using the atoms. The use of the atoms in particular displayed the extent to which the common-mode frequency noise can influence the experiment.
}, Author = {Chandrashekara, K. K.}, Journal = {}, Pages = {}, Title = {{A High-Power Ti:Sa Laser System for Atomic Quantum Walks Experiments}}, Volume = {}, Year = {2020} }