Abstract
Magneto-optical trap (MOT) is a practical technique widely used in experimental physics. In quantum optics, atomic gas in a MOT have important applications such as entangled-photon generation (by spontaneous four-wave mixing, SFWM) or photon storage. Conventional 3D MOT uses one pair of anti-Helmholtz coils to create a gradient in three dimensions so as to confine the atoms around the center and form a spherical cloud. In contrast, we use two pairs of anti-Helmholtz coils to create gradient in two dimensions and realize a 2D MOT. The atoms are confined along one axis and form a cigar-shape cloud. Compared to a 3D MOT, the optical density (OD) increases due to longer cloud and the gradient is zero along the long axis. Our 2D MOT for Rb-87 atoms has two potential applications: (1) entangled photon pair can be generated using SFWM and one photon in the pair will be stored in another MOT of Rb atoms for studying photon storage, and (2) the atoms in the MOT can be used to store incident photons. This thesis will focus on the details of the construction of the 2D MOT.