Date Thesis Awarded
7-2012
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Science (BS)
Department
Physics
Advisor
Seth Aubin
Committee Members
Henry Krakauer
Peter Kemper
Abstract
This thesis presents work on the development of an atomic clock using bosonic potassium (39K and 87Rb) in order to study the role of inter-atom interactions on an atomic time standard. The project designed and constructed an RF circuit and RF antenna to manipulate the internal hyper fine states of the ultra-cold atoms. We developed an optical trap to trap these atoms in a vacuum cell, and performed several tests to check their behavior and measure their temperature. We performed experiments to observe Rabi flopping between the hyper ne states of the atoms. The eventual goal of this project is to create an operational atomic clock and observe the effects of inter-atom interactions.
Recommended Citation
Gvakharia, Alexander, "Development of an Ultra-Cold Atom Atomic Clock" (2012). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 521.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/521
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a
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Comments
Thesis is part of Honors ETD pilot project, 2008-2013. Migrated from Dspace in 2016.