Phys 499: Final Report Optical transport of cold atoms

In order to interface a cloud of ultracold rubidium atoms with a nanomechanical device, the cloud needs to be transported a macroscopic distance of approximately 30cm. To do this, we make use of focus-tunable lenses from Optotune to electronically control the focus of an infrared laser with wavelenth of 1064nm. The focus of the laser creates a red-detuned dipole trap for the atoms. The heating of the transport is modelled in the non-adiabatic regime to ensure that the cold gas cloud does not escape from the trap during transport. The current system’s trap depth is on the shallow side, consequence of a waist that is slight too large. Replacing lens 1 with a smaller focal length lens should fix the problem.