2017–2022·New York, NY
Ph.D., AMO Physics — Zelevinsky Lab
Cooling molecules with light.
My thesis was the direct laser cooling of calcium monohydride — taking a molecule and slowing it with nothing but precisely tuned light. That meant owning the whole apparatus: the laser sources, the frequency stabilization, the vacuum, the cryogenics, and the single-photon detection.
When both the previous senior student and the lab postdoc left within months of each other — during the pandemic, in New York City — I rebuilt the entire cooling laser system solo, retuning it from a 1064 nm infrared design to 635 nm visible red to switch the experiment from barium to calcium monohydride. It worked, and it became my first-author paper.
Built a complete molecular-cooling laser system — ECDLs, tapered and Raman fiber amplifiers, full RF/electro-optic chain — with sub-MHz stabilization, a custom 4K cryogenic buffer-gas cell, and bespoke UHV chambers.
Optical cycling, radiative deflection, and laser cooling of BaH — one of the first molecules of its class brought under direct laser control.
Designed hardware PID lock boxes and frequency references — Doppler-free saturation spectroscopy, Fizeau interferometer locking, and a cesium absorption reference — for sub-MHz linewidth control.
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