Award Date

8-1-2022

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Physics and Astronomy

First Committee Member

Yan Zhou

Second Committee Member

Joshua Island

Third Committee Member

Bernard Zygelman

Fourth Committee Member

Balakrishnan Naduvalath

Number of Pages

64

Abstract

In this study, an apparatus for the high-resolution laser spectroscopy of molecules is designed and constructed. The apparatus is used to identify TaO transitions, but may be used for any other molecular species in the future. It will also later be used for experiments such as quantum logic spectroscopy, which are enabled by attachable chambers that can be supplied with molecules from the apparatus. Several considerations are made to improve the quality and longevity of the apparatus such as regulating the rovibrational states of the produced molecules, optimizing the linewidth of the ionization lasers, reducing noise from sources such as laser scattering, creating interlocks, and more. As a final test, we check for Ta and TaO signals at known transitions. A rough scan through the wavelength range of 615.6 - 629.8 nm and its frequency doubled counterpart yields peaks for Ta that correspond to 310.4150 and 312.8772 nm from the NIST Atomic Spectra Database. Two peaks for TaO agree with v00 transitions from the ground to E (15880.6 cm−1) and F 10 (16051 cm−1) states found in the NIST Chemistry WebBook, while a third peak is likely associated with the v11 transition from the ground to F 10 state. Our scan shows good agreement, and so the next step is to improve the scan resolution to study the spectrum in more detail.

Keywords

Spectroscopy; TaO

Disciplines

Physics

File Format

pdf

File Size

5600 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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