Olsen Lab

2024 Feb 13

Welcome Emmas!

Emma H and Emma F joined the lab to work on building and characterizing the lab's electromagnets.

2023 Nov 22

Laser engraver active

Our first laser alignment task in the new lab was getting an 80~W CO₂ laser engraver set up. Ready to cut!

2023 Aug 15

We have moved!

The Olsen Lab has moved to Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR. Time to get working on rebuilding the apparatus!

2021 May 31

Summer reseach begins

Pranshu, Laura, Phong, and Rafa joined the lab to work on various hardware-related projects (in a social-distancing compatible way).

2020 July 31

Summer research complete

Areeb, Alvin, and Maaz worked hard all summer... from their rooms. They developed more capability for lab environment monitoring with raspberry pi's. Here is a rare picture of them in the lab near the end of the summer.

2020 Jun 03

Virtual DAMOP Talk

Link to Ben's talk (registration required). Due to trasvel restrictions, the APS DAMOP meeting was held virtually this year. Ben talked about precision spectroscopy of Li vapor in buffer gases. Download the prerecorded talk here (200 MB).

2020 Apr 07

Making a difference outside the lab

Coverage of Yun Da's side project in Latest@Yale-NUS. Using some of the same techniques as in the lab, Yun Da helped create a laundry machine status monitoring system.

2020 Apr 04

Lab entering shutdown

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, all research labs in Singapore will be closing until May 4.

2020 Mar 19

RGA operational

We installed an tested a residual gas analyzer from SRS on the lithium spectroscopy cell today - look at all those gases in the vacuum chamber!

2020 Feb 12

Now with 100% more laser curtain

Our laser safety curtains were delivered and installed today - now we just need to get some powerful lasers that merit such durable curtains.

2019 Dec 24

Equipment shelves assembled

Thanks to my parents, Gary Olsen (pictured here with in-progress shelves) and Cynthia Robeck, for their help installing the shelves to hold equipment over the optical tables.

2019 Dec 16

Renovations complete, optical tables delivered

Renovations on the lab are finally complete, and the first piece of equipment has moved in. The optical tables are very stiff to reduce variations in laser beam paths, and sit on cushions of air in the legs to damp vibrations from the floor. Come visit us in Lab 1 of the Science Centre!

2019 Oct 25

First doppler-free signal!

Late friday nights in the lab seem to yield the most results. Here is an oscilloscope trace of our first Doppler free saturated absorption spectroscopy signal. The broad peak is absorption due to all the lithium atoms (with a spread in velocities), while the narrow peaks are due only to atoms at rest along the direction of the laser beam.

2019 Oct 18

New Group Member

Yun Da is a second-year student interested in raspberry pi and microcontrollers, and will continue development of our laboratory monitoring system. Welcome!

2019 Aug 31

New Lab Interns

Welcome to our newest members of the lab - Jingying Wang and Angela Gupta. They will be assisting with the construction of our lithium spectroscopy cell and measuring shifts of the resonance frequency due to collisions with inert gases.

2019 Aug 16

New Group Member

Dikshant is a first-year student interested in quantum physics. He will begin by building (classical) circuits and developing electronic tools for controlling equipment. Welcome!

2019 May 31

Bon Voyage, Tabi!

Tabi is leaving to spend some time in the UK, followed by a semester abroad. On her last day in the lab this year, we sealed up the spectroscopy vacuum chamber and pumped it down to just below \(10^{-4}\) Pa. Great work, and see you in 2020!

2019 May 14

First Labsnacks Box!

Our first order from Thorlabs arrived today. My initial excitement was dampened by the confusion of all the students: "Is this... American food?".

2019 May 13

Summer research begins

A warm welcome to the newest members of the lab: Tabitha, Rishav, and Devendra! This summer, they'll build some of the foundations of the lab infrastructure: lab monitoring sensors, experimental control software, and a vacuum chamber for saturated absorption spectroscopy.