Towards a Dual-Species Atom Interferometer with Cadmium and Strontium

This thesis discusses the work done towards building a novel dual-species atom interferometer with ultra-cold cadmium and strontium at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Flo- rence, with special focus on the required laser systems and on the design of the dual-species vacuum chamber, which is thoroughly numerically simulated. Atom interferometry experiments based on alkaline-earth and alkaline-earth-like elements allow for precision measurements using their narrow- linewidth transitions. Furthermore, interferometric schemes such as multi-photon Bragg interferom- etry and emerging single-photon (clock) atom interferometry can be studied with both cadmium and strontium. Using these features, the dual-species interferometer provides the possibility to search for violations of the weak equivalence principle and to observe the e↵ect of time dilation on quantum superpositions of clocks. In order to perform these experiments, the laser systems to access the singlet and triplet states of cadmium and strontium are developed and tested in order to be able to perform laser cooling, trapping and also for all the possible interferometric schemes. In the case of cadmium, all of these transitions lie in the ultraviolet region and this work also delves into the chal- lenges in the production of the necessary high-power and continuous-wave light at 326 nm, 332 nm and especially the highly challenging deep ultraviolet light at 229 nm. In the cases of 326 nm and 332 nm, the light produced is at the Watt-level with sub-kHz linewidths. The developed laser sources are tested by performing spectroscopy on the novel atomic beam of cadmium, including making the first complete set of measurements of the isotopes shift of 1S0 - 1P1 transition at 229 nm. The measured properties of the developed laser sources are used to design and simulate a state-of-the-art apparatus for producing ultra-cold cadmium. This system is carefully designed to allow for direct loading of a magneto-optical trap on the narrow 1S0 - 3P1 of cadmium and is fully numerically simulated to validate and design the vacuum chamber. Finally, the full vacuum chamber of the cadmium-strontium apparatus is presented, including a calculation of a shifting lattice to launch these two atoms simultaneously in an atomic fountain.