Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The invention of the laser has transformed our understanding of light-matter interactions, leading to revolutionary advances in fundamental science, and resulting in far-reaching technological breakthroughs. The applicant's group has developed a new class of low cost, homebuilt, vacuum-sealed, auto-locking laser systems (ALS) that can be frequency stabilized with respect to atomic, molecular, and temperature tunable solid-state frequency markers without human intervention. ALS technology has enabled the development of high power pulsed laser systems, control systems for opto-mechanical feedback, techniques for manipulation of laser intensity, frequency, and phase, and high-speed data acquisition systems. The deployment of ALS has transformed the applicant's research program and led to a series of rapidly evolving precision measurements relevant to atomic physics and industrial metrology. The overriding theme of this proposal is to realize applications of ALS by utilizing distinctive coherent transient techniques developed by the applicant in the following key areas: 1) Since ALS have outperformed widely established commercial laser systems that have been used for generations, they will be miniaturized so that portable units can be integrated into commercial gravimeters that are used for the non-invasive exploration of oil and natural gas, seismic monitoring of environmentally sensitive areas designated for resource extraction, and tidal forecasting. 2) ALS will be line narrowed by locking to external cavities so that they are suitable for state of the art, atom interferometric measurements of gravity using laser-cooled atoms. Such an ultracold atom sensor will used to certify industrial gravimeters that currently lack reliable means of calibration. 3) The phase noise of ALS will be characterized so that they can realize the most accurate measurements of atomic lifetimes using a particularly suitable and overlooked coherent transient technique. Such measurements will test theoretical calculations of atomic structure required to interpret parity non-conservation experiments that probe the standard model of physics. 4) Pulsed laser systems based on ALS will be used to develop, compare, and improve time domain magnetometers that can realize the most sensitive measurements of magnetic fields, and for achieving the most accurate measurements of diffusion coefficients that are required to understand the performance of magnetometers. Portable pulsed laser systems will be integrated with magnetometers used in airborne surveys for the detection of metal and mineral deposits, and used to develop versatile lidar systems that can operate over extended spectral ranges for environmental monitoring of atmospheric pollutants and trace gases. 5) Free space optical tweezers experiments that track kinematics of trapped particles on fast time scales will be developed for the rapid characterization and accurate mass determinations of contaminants and pathogens.