Barium ion cavity qed and triply ionized thorium ion trapping

Thorium;Barium;Ion trapping;Isomer

Steele, Adam V. ; Physics

University:Georgia Institute of Technology

Department:Physics

关键词: Thorium;    Barium;    Ion trapping;    Isomer;   

Others  :  https://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/1853/26530/1/steele_adam_v_200812_phd.pdf

美国|英语

来源: SMARTech Repository

【 摘 要 】

Trapped cold ions are tools which we used to approach two very disparate areas of physics, strong coupling between Ba+ ions and optical resonators, and investigations of a low-energy nuclear isomer of 229-Th.The first part of this thesis describes our progress towards the integration of a miniature Paul (rf) ion trap with a high finesse (F=30000) optical cavity.Ba+ ions were trapped and cooled for long periods and a new scheme for isotope selective photoionization was developed.The second part of this thesis describes our progress towards controlled excitation of the low energy nuclear isomer of 229-Th, which may provide a bridge between the techniques of cold atomic and nuclear physics.As a step towards this goal, 232-Th3+ ions were confined in rf ions traps and cooled via collisions with a buffer gas of helium.A sophisticated scanning program was developed for controlling ion trap loading, tuning lasers, and running a CCD camera to look for fluorescence.The low-lying electronic transitions of Th3+ at 984 nm, 690 nm and 1087 nm were observed via laser fluorescence.