High-precision laser beam shaping using a binary-amplitude spatial light modulator.

We have achieved high-precision laser beam shaping by using a binary-amplitude spatial light modulator, a digital micromirror device (DMD), followed by an imaging telescope that contains a pinhole low-pass filter (LPF). An error diffusion algorithm was used to design the initial DMD pixel pattern based on the measured input beam profile. This pattern was iteratively refined by simulating the optically low-pass filtered DMD image and changing DMD pixels to lift valleys and suppress peaks.

1.5% root-mean-square flat-intensity laser beam formed using a binary-amplitude spatial light modulator.

We demonstrate a digital micromirror device (DMD)-based optical system that converts a spatially noisy quasi-Gaussian to an eighth-order super-Lorentzian flat-top beam. We use an error-diffusion algorithm to design the binary pattern for the Texas Instruments DLP device. Following the DMD, a telescope with a pinhole low-pass filters the beam and scales it to the desired sized image.

Interisotope determination of ultracold rubidium interactions from three high-precision experiments.

Combining the measured binding energies of four of the most weakly bound rovibrational levels of the 87Rb2 molecule with results of two other recent high-precision experiments, we obtain exceptionally strong constraints on the atomic interaction parameters in a highly model independent analysis. The comparison of (85)Rb and (87)Rb data, where the two isotopes are related by a mass scaling procedure, plays a crucial role. We predict scattering lengths, clock shifts, and Feshbach resonances with an unprecedented level of accuracy.

Superchemistry: dynamics of coupled atomic and molecular bose-einstein condensates.

We analyze the dynamics of a dilute, trapped Bose-condensed atomic gas coupled to a diatomic molecular Bose gas by coherent Raman transitions. This system is shown to result in a new type of "superchemistry," in which giant collective oscillations between the atomic and the molecular gas can occur. The phenomenon is caused by stimulated emission of bosonic atoms or molecules into their condensate phases.

Molecules in a bose-einstein condensate.

State-selected rubidium-87 molecules were created at rest in a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate of rubidium-87 atoms with coherent free-bound stimulated Raman transitions. The transition rate exhibited a resonance line shape with an extremely narrow width as small as 1.5 kilohertz.

Progress at NIST toward absolute frequency standards using stored ions.

Experiments directed toward the realization of frequency standards of high accuracy using stored ions are briefly summarized. In one experiment, an RF oscillator is locked to a nuclear spin-flip hyperfine transition (frequency approximately 3.03x10(8) Hz) in (9 )Be(+) ions that are stored in a Penning trap and sympathetically laser-cooled.