[time-nuts] Re: Want to build your own optical clock?

[Magnus Danielson]

Well, as I recall it, you don't see it in visual wavelengths, so you use 
a scope to view it, and what happens is that a dot becomes formed "in 
thin air" (vacuum with some rubidium gas). Since it is fairly small, you 
don't really preceive shape but more intensity as more atoms stay at the 
same place.

At least my eyes isn't sharp enough to make out single atoms, despite 
being fairly near-sighted. :)

Cheers,
Magnus

On 2024-01-25 14:57, paul swed wrote:
> Very curious. If you can visually see the process of cooling, would 
> the line or dot become more tightly bunched as it cooled?
> Regards
> Paul
>
> On Thu, Jan 25, 2024 at 8:05 AM Magnus Danielson via time-nuts 
> <time-nuts at lists.febo.com> wrote:
>
>     Paul,
>
>     When I did the NIST Time and Frequency Seminars, one of the lab evens
>     was the MOT. It was really instructive and fun to get the cooling
>     going,
>     and we where able to cool both Rb-87 and Rb-85. Looking at a spot and
>     realize it is really really cool atoms is cool. Only time that was
>     surpassed, was when I saw the cool atoms in NPLs cesium fountain, as
>     these are among the few that contribute to actual TAI.
>
>     Having a MOT is tempting. However, I may need to consider my
>     priorities.
>     I mean, what gear get's thrown out???
>
>     Cheers,
>     Magnus
>
>     On 2024-01-25 00:13, paul swed via time-nuts wrote:
>     > Skip it was interesting to take a look at what you sent. Sure
>     looks like
>     > some students are going to have fun with cold atoms.
>     > In some of the earlier threads there was a discussion on failure
>     modes and
>     > the laser was most likely. This had me thinking about the old
>     cesiums I
>     > have.
>     > Assuming they are on average 40 years old, then the current life
>     of the
>     > units are some 350,000 hours. Granted I don't run them 24 X 7.
>     > But it at least sets a number to what we are used to at some level.
>     > Not very scientific but a fun fact.
>     > Regards
>     > Paul
>     > WB8TSL
>     >
>     > On Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 5:47 PM Skip Withrow via time-nuts <
>     > time-nuts at lists.febo.com> wrote:
>     >
>     >> Infleqtion will have a booth at Photonics West in San Francisco
>     Jan. 27 -
>     >> Feb. 1.
>     >> They are working on all kinds of quantum physics stuff, but
>     have two things
>     >> of particular interest to time-nuts.
>     >> 1. Tiqker - A Rb cold atom clock in a 3U rack mount package. 
>     Pretty
>     >> limited production at this point, but something to watch.  I
>     think there is
>     >> another company in CA working on a similar product.
>     >>
>     >> 2. desqtopMOT - geared towards educational institutions, but
>     suitable for
>     >> draining your bank account and free time. Explore, educate, and
>     empower the
>     >> workforce of tomorrow with the desqtopMOT cold atom platform —
>     Infleqtion
>     >> <https://www.infleqtion.com/desqtopmot>
>     >>
>     >> Regards,
>     >> Skip Withrow
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