@phdthesis{12635,
  author = {Lindsay Sonderhouse},
  title = {Quantum gas engineering for atomic clocks},
  abstract = {Optical atomic clocks with high precision allow minute frequency shifts to be measured in short timescales. Low instability requires an atomic frequency reference with a high quality factor that is prepared in the minimal amount of time. The advent of the Fermi-degenerate three-dimensional (3D) optical lattice clock demonstrated that significant advances in precision metrology can be made by incorporating ultracold quantum gases. This thesis focuses on improving the precision of Fermi-degenerate clocks beyond their initial record demonstration by optimizing the preparation, characterization, and scattering properties of degenerate Fermi gases (DFGs). We first demonstrate that the SU(N)-symmetric nuclear spin degree of freedom in 87Sr can be used as a tool to enhance cooling to quantum degeneracy. This allows us to rapidly prepare a DFG, evaporating to temperatures of 0.2 times the Fermi temperature in only 600 ms. With this and a new spin-polarizing method, we can prepare a spin-polarized degenerate gas in under 3 s. We also systematically study the thermodynamics of the gas, measuring up to a 20% reduction of the compressibility due to repulsive SU(N) interactions. We next explore how the natural lifetime of an atomic state can be increased by embedding excitations within a degenerate Fermi gas. With a light scattering experiment, we angularly resolve the suppression of the photon scattering rate and measure up to a factor of two reduction near the absorption direction, where the momentum transfer from the light is reduced. Our results agree with semiclassical calculations across a range of temperatures and Fermi energies. Finally, we discuss an experiment that attempts to directly measure an increase in the natural lifetime of a narrow-linewidth transition. This Pauli blocking mechanism provides a means to quantum engineer devices with decoherence rates below what nature would provide alone.},
  year = {2021},
  journal = {Department of Physics},
  volume = {Ph.D.},
  pages = {213},
  month = {2021-10},
  publisher = {University of Colorado Boulder},
  address = {Boulder},
}