So we are good at GHz modulation in our lab – that’s what we do. So our team, lead by Paul Russell, has built our repump laser by using injection locking to a GHz modulated sideband of our trap laser. This is less expensive and easier than (my opinion) than the traditional way of doing it (but nothing new). He was been able scan the seed laser over the 87 trap transition and have it simultaneously scan through the 87 repump transition (6.8 GHz away through the injection lock of the sideband.) This was a cool mini experiment because we are able to show we did the frequency calculation correctly. If we didn’t, both absorption peaks wouldn’t be up at the same time.

One or two more small things and then we will make another attempt at our re-built MOT. Getting our lab going after the shut down has been time consuming. The students are doing such a good job.

While this is ho-hum stuff for an atomic physics lab, what I really like about it is that Paul just sat down and built it in a day of work. That is awesome! High level stuff for an undergrad! Paul would be an awesome employee or grad student.