Development and Upgrade of a Laser Cooling and Trapping System of Ultracold Potassium Atoms

This thesis describes work to improve the apparatus that cools and loads potassium atoms onto the atom chip. This work consists of two main thrusts: a laser trap translator to help cool and load atoms onto the atom chip and a temperature stabilization system for the lasers that are used to laser cool potassium atoms. The current iteration of the beam translator has the ability to vertically translate a beam ±4.5 mm relative to its incident height. The translator has been shown to not alter the spatial profile of the beam through interference or obstruction. The translator’s rotation has been adjusted to minimize atomic heating once the translator is integrated for use in optical atomic trapping. The translator has been installed on the apparatus but has not yet been tested with ultracold atoms. Furthermore, a feedback system was designed for climate-managing the potassium cooling lasers utilized in the Aubin lab’s ultracold apparatus