Fall 08 Seminar Series

Eric Bahr
Physics Major
California State University East Bay

Measuring the Cross-Section of Alignment Exchange in Two Isotopes of Rubidium

An important subject in atomic physics is the study of how properties can be transferred from one atom to another during a collision. Exhaustive studies have been done on the exchange of a particular atomic property: orientation (the direction of the total angular momentum vector for an atom). In this talk, we discuss one of the first investigations of the collisional transfer of a different property: alignment (the atom's preferred axis of angular momentum). We search for alignment transfer from Rb-87 to Rb-85 using two lasers and a clever magnetic field configuration. This experiment not only demonstrates our increasing power to control and manipulate individual atomic states, but also helps in the continuing discovery of new physics.