Master thesis defense by Sylvester Meedom Nielsen

Optical Pumping of Exotic Atoms for Efficient Laser Manipulations

 Aluminium is experimentally probed by laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy in the ultraviolet region. Quantum state transitions at wavelengths of 396 nm from 3s²3p ²P°₃⁄₂ to 3s²4s ²S₁⁄₂ and at wavelengths of 309 nm from 3s²3p ²P°₃⁄₂ to 3s²3d ²D₅⁄₂ are identified in the observed spectra. Optical pumping and anti-pumping are performed experimentally with a 396 nm laser driving the hyperfine transitions ²P°₃⁄₂(F = 3) → ²S₁⁄₂(F′ = 3) and ²P°₃⁄₂(F = 4) → ²S₁⁄₂(F′ = 3), respectively. Using spectroscopy, the obtained optically pumped and anti-pumped populations in ²P°₃⁄₂(F = 4) are found to be (28.7 ± 0.5)% and (12.9 ± 0.2)%, respectively. The experiments are recreated with Python simulations using the pylcp library. Furthermore, laser configurations for efficiently achieving an optically pumped population of 95% in the ground state 3s²3p ²P°₃⁄₂(F = 4) are investigated via simulations, and an optimal configuration is found. The developed simulation tools enable future investigations into optical pumping configurations for exotic atoms like germanium and silicium.