Tutorial: Current controllers for optimizing laser cooling on cold atom experiments

Abstract

The design of single chip current source based on a common power operational amplifier is presented and demonstrated for the purpose of controlling applied magnetic fields using bias/shim electromagnets in cold atom experiments. The efficacy of the design is realized via application to red-detuned polarization-gradient cooling of ${}^{87}$Rb down to 3 $\mu$K. Further, we demonstrate Raman spectroscopy using these devices to apply current and so generate a precise, accurate, and reproducible magnetic field. This work is intended as a short tutorial for new graduate students and postdocs of laser cooling and trapping.

7 pages, 3 figures, tutorial for newcomers

References in corpus (8)

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• Experiment to detect dark energy forces using atom interferometry
• Λ-enhanced Sub-Doppler Cooling of Lithium Atoms in D1 Gray Molasses
• Sub-Doppler laser cooling of fermionic 40K atoms in three-dimensional gray optical molasses
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