Ryne Saxe and Carson Teale

Ultracold Atoms and Quantum Gases

at the University of Washington

"Do you take the red laser... or the blue laser?"

Ryne Saxe and Carson Teale are two intrepid summer students, trying to follow in the footsteps of Nolan Maloney (in terms of being REU students, and getting pieces of lab equipment named after them) while trying to avoid following his footsteps over the abyss into madness (and/or Walla Walla County). Only time can tell how they will fare, but consider these preliminary observations:

Subject R. is a student at the University of Alabama who is building a Lithium-line photoassociation (red) laser. R. keeps claiming that he needs to drill more and more additional holes into his laser assembly. This compulsive condition may be caused by a diet consisting exclusively of fish tacos.

Subject C., a student at the University of Colorado is building a (blue) laser to excite a strong transition in atomic ytterbium. He has nearly withdrawn from the world, spending hours in solitude in the machine shop and avoiding most human interaction.

We nevertheless hope that by summer's end, both Carson and Ryne will have a laser to call their own, along with a minimum of adverse psychological side effects