Grant: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Research Tools and Instruments

In this first year of the TRIUMF Neutral Atom trap for beta decay (TRINAT) project grant, we have begun to implement an improvement in trapping efficiency with newly purchased equipment. We used the new methods to successfully trap a new isotope for us, 47K, and variations on the present equipment should let us complete the isospin mixing part of this experiment this December. Yet in the process we have identified a number of challenges. Our project grant application had mentioned we planned an RTI this year after gaining this sort of experience. This RTI would use our extra experimental info and experience to identify the purchase of a new master diode laser and a new EOM modulator-- we will explain in detail these terms and full reasoning in the application. The evolving setup with our project grant funds would increase the number of 37K atoms trapped for our spin-polarized program by a factor of two, while the equipment from this RTI would increase that to a factor of seven. As importantly, the new laser would make an already-purchased tapered amplifier independent of the existing 899-21 Ti:Sapph ring and its control electronics, a system that is slowly depreciating and is no longer supported by manufacturers. We would implement this RTI to increase the number of atoms trapped of 47K as well. This will be critical to improve the experimental sensitivity of our future time-reversal experiment, which theoretically enhanced sensitivity to a particular type of time-reversal violation (parity-even and isospin-breaking among the final nucleons) will determined by our measurement of the isospin breaking. In the Proposal, we feel we must provide further technical details supporting this RTI. We understand SAPES will not have referee support from the part of the $\beta$ decay community also skilled in AMO, so we will try to keep this accessible. We have nevertheless provided rigorous details at the level of an NSF AMO proposal. The HQP from this RTI concerns instrumentation optics projects for a new M.Sc. student or two successive coop undergrads, depending on timeliness, under the direct supervision of the applicant. This is summarized in the Proposal .pdf as well. We have followed in the Proposal the SAP RTI outline of five selection criteria.