Related papers: Calibrating High Intensity Absorption Imaging of U…
We report on a far above saturation absorption imaging technique to investigate the characteristics of dense packets of ultracold atoms. The transparency of the cloud is controlled by the incident light intensity as a result of the…
In this paper we show that the sensitivity of absorption imaging of ultracold atoms can be significantly improved by imaging in a standing-wave configuration. We present simulations of single-atom absorption imaging both for a…
A majority of ultracold atom experiments utilize resonant absorption imaging techniques to obtain the atomic density. To make well-controlled quantitative measurements, the optical intensity of the probe beam must be precisely calibrated in…
The noise in absorption imaging of cold atoms significantly impacts measurement accuracy across a range of applications with ultracold atoms. It is crucial to adopt an approach that offers effective denoising capabilities without…
The accurate determination of atom numbers is an ubiquitous problem in the field of ultracold atoms. For modest atom numbers, absolute calibration techniques are available, however, for large numbers and high densities, the available…
In this report I attempt to outline the process of developing and building an absorption imaging system capable of imaging ultracold atoms. In the theory section I will discuss the elements required to estimate the atom number and derive…
We develop a theoretical model for calibrating the absorption imaging of cold atoms under high magnetic fields. Comparing to zero or low magnetic fields, the efficiency of the absorption imaging becomes lower while it requires an additional…
Absorption imaging and spectroscopy can probe the dynamics of an ultracold neutral plasma during the first few microseconds after its creation. Quantitative analysis of the data, however, is complicated by the inhomogeneous density…
We report the optical imaging of a single atom with nanometer resolution using an adaptive optical alignment technique that is applicable to general optical microscopy. By decomposing the image of a single laser-cooled atom, we identify and…
We report optical absorption imaging of ultracold neutral plasmas.Images are used to measure the ion absorption spectrum, which is Doppler-broadened. Through the spectral width, we monitor ion equilibration in the first 250ns after plasma…
Absorption imaging is a commonly adopted method to acquire, with high temporal resolution, spatial information on a partially transparent object. It relies on the interference between a probe beam and the coherent response of the object. In…
We demonstrate Babinet's principle by the absorption of high intensity light from dense clouds of ultracold atoms. Images of the diffracted light are directly related to the spatial distribution of atoms. The advantages of employing…
Optical absorption imaging has become a common technique for detecting the density distribution of ultracold atoms. The defocus effect generally produces artificial spatial structures in the obtained images, which confuses our understanding…
Imaging ultracold atomic gases close to surfaces is an important tool for the detailed analysis of experiments carried out using atom chips. We describe the critical factors that need be considered, especially when the imaging beam is…
Quantum fluctuations in the intensity of an optical probe is noise which limits measurement precision in absorption spectroscopy. Increased probe power can offer greater precision, however, this strategy is often constrained by sample…
One of the readily accessible observables in trapped cold-atom experiments is the column density, which is determined from optical depth (OD) obtained from absorption imaging and the absorption cross-section ($\sigma_{\rm abs}$). Here we…
Partial-transfer absorption imaging is a tool that enables optimal imaging of atomic clouds for a wide range of optical depths. In contrast to standard absorption imaging, the technique can be minimally-destructive and can be used to obtain…
High-sensitivity imaging of ultracold atoms is often challenging when interference patterns are imprinted on the imaging light. Such image noises result in low signal-to-noise ratio and limit the capability to extract subtle physical…
We developed an ultra-compact high-resolution imaging system for cold atoms. Its only in-vacuum element is a multimode optical fiber with a diameter of $230\,\mu$m, which simultaneously collects light and guides it out of the vacuum…
We propose and demonstrate an experimental method to measure by absorption imaging the size and local column density of a cloud of atoms, even when its smallest dimension is smaller than the resolution of the imaging system. To do this, we…