Postdoctoral researcher

Researcher will develop next-generation deployable, calibration-free Doppler thermometers. The Doppler broadening of spectral lines relates gas temperature to SI-defining physical constants and immutable gas properties, allowing primary thermometry. Achieving the size, accuracy, and measurement speed sufficient for thermometry in industrial applications requires new approaches to absorption spectroscopy. First, to reduce the size, the project will use microfabricated atomic vapor cells. Second, the project will incorporate narrow linewidth lasers from optical frequency metrology to refine knowledge of atomic properties, allowing atomic Doppler thermometry with unprecedented accuracy.  Third, the project will employ tunable electro-optic frequency combs to boost measurement speed.  The researcher will integrate these three technologies to yield a portable Doppler thermometer with a sensor size comparable to a standard thermometer, but with the advantage that it never has to be calibrated.