Shiny Diamond - In search of NV centers

Light path - NV center

Self portarait of an experimentalist

Detail of a high finesse cavity in a vacuum chamber and the wires connecting the piezoelectric actuators used for aligning it.

On the way to MOT

Part of the setup of a Magneo-Optical trap (MOT). In the center the vacuum chamber.

Diving platform

Chip in the dark

Trapping single atoms

Detail of a Magneto-Optical Trap. It is possible to notice also one of the high numerical aperture lenses that focuses a far red-detuned laser beam used to create a dipole trap for a single atom.

The cold plate

4K stage of a Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator with a set of SQUIDs and in the foreground.

Blue MOT

A cloud of 87Rb atoms trapped in a MOT. The blue scsattering comes from the decay of the second exited level, a byproduct of the pumping used in the four wave mixing.

Dipole trap

Large numerical aperture lenses can be used to generate optical tweezers, a focused beam of light that can trap microscopic objects, including single atoms. The optical mode is sown by colelcting the scattering of a test beam onto a piece of paper. The long exposure makes the paper disappear.