1. Experiment
2. Hardware
3. Electronics Development

The experiment has been steadily progressing towards our goal of a Sagnac interferometer. We first started by attempting to trap atoms in a field of ring geometry, this was achieved by using a large ~10cm diameter ring magnet placed on top of our vacuum chamber. The combined fields of the MOT coils and ring magnetic produced the desired field.

We then took delivery of the PCB; designed to transport atoms to the atom chip. As backups of the PCB were ordered, it was decided to try out the transport whilst another was sent to Israel to have the atom chipped glued on. With the vacuum broken and the PCB mounted to the flange, Kapton wires were connected to the PCB and to four D-Sub connectors in the flange. This provided us with the ability to independently control the current through the seven separate coils on the PCB.

In order to prevent the the coils from being damaged from excess heat by overloading of current, an ‘over see-er’ circuit is being built. The circuit principle is simple, to measure the voltage drop, and the current through each coil, the resistance in then obtained through a micro controller (Arduino). If the resistance increases above a pre determined value then the circuit of each coil is opened.

 

 

The vacuum chamber will sit on a rotating table, the rotation produced by a motorised air bearing: which is capable of rotation rates comparable to the Earths.

1. Achieved trapping atoms in a ring shaped potential with the large permanent magnet.
2. Attempt at PCB transport without chip

Hardware

1. First set of PCB’s
2. Glueing wave plate on
3. connecting to flange
4. Rate table

Electronics Development

1. Beat Lock
2. “The Over See-er”