Building a 3D Magneto-Optical Trap

3D Magneto-Optical Traps (MOTs) are quantum mechanical devices that are used to cool atoms down to temperatures as low as tens of microkelvin using Doppler cooling techniques. The laser cooling process in a 3D-MOT utilizes three sets of counterpropagating and orthogonally placed lasers to trap atoms at a central intersection point in the middle of a weak quadrupole magnetic field to slow the atom's velocity and drop their temperatures dramatically. My work involves designing and constructing the optical setup for this laser cooling process so that our lab can cool atoms to the temperatures required to conduct research on Bose-Einstein condensates.