Working Towards a Compact Cold Ion Source

This thesis presents work on creating a cold atomic ion source based on a diffraction grating magneto-optical trap using caesium. Due to this technique, the source profile has been minimised in terms of both spatial extent and production cost - characteristics that have been emphasised throughout this work so as to be more applicable to both industrial applications and further research. To ionise the Cs, a novel excitation scheme has been designed involving three low energy transitions from the ground state of 6S, to the Rydberg state 21P, from which the atoms can be field ionised. In order to maximise the efficiency of the Rydberg state coupling, a new offset frequency reference based on Zeeman detuned ground state spectroscopy of rubidium was devised. Only a weak caesium trap using a grating was observed in this work, however discussion as to the reasons for this are presented. Despite this, full schematics and engineering diagrams for the proposed integrated ion source are presented with the hope of construction once a viable trap is demonstrated as there are no fundamental reasons hindering success.