Construction of Monolithic All-Glass Optical Cavities for Trapping Ultracold Atoms

摘要

This thesis reports a successful testing of a procedure for the construction of a high finesse monolithic glass bowtie cavity using hydroxide catalysis bonding. The design of the cavity is optimized for use in optical dipole trapping of ultracold atoms. The all-glass design is especially suited for experiments that include rapidly changing magnetic field, such as those employing Feshbach resonances. These all-glass hydroxide catalysis bonded cavities are ultra-high vacuum compatible and survive moderate bake-out temperatures required to reach ultra low pressures.;We developed a set of alignment procedures and mechanical jigs for the purposes of precisely aligning a symmetric bowtie cavity. The alignment procedures and jigs guarantee a minimal degree of cavity twist and maximize overlap at the beam crossing point. A prototype cavity constructed using these procedures was measured to have a beam overlap within the tolerances necessary to generate an effective crossed beam dipole trap.