Progress towards a quantum simulator with cold atoms

This thesis presents work toward a quantum simulator with cold atoms. Characteristic and defining subsystems of the experimental setup are presented. Among them there are: the self-made viewports for ultra-high vacuum using indium seals, work on a modular laser system, for laser cooling, with miniaturised optics for the optimization of double path acusto-optic modulator. Work on a computer control to implement past slot is also presented. A versatile detection system for absorption imaging was designed and built. This detection system is stable, easy to align and exchange of magnification is simple. As well, a high resolution imaging system was designed, built and tested. This imaging system uses commercial microscope objectives and has been designed to work with four different microscope objective. Magnification of 5x, 10x 20x and 50x are possible. With the maximum magnification of 50x a resolution of 1.74μm for 780nm was achieved. Also a camera control for in-situ absorption imaging was programmed. Calculation of number of atoms and temperature were implemented in the program, as well as a defringing algorithm. A new method for temperature calculation for atoms held in a magnetic quadrupole trap was developed and tested, giving similar calculation of temperature as the commonly known time of flight (TOF) method. It is shown that this new method gives better results than the common TOF method for short time of flight. Characterization of atom losses and heating in the production of a Bose-Einstein condensate were performed