Conclusion

In our lab we were able to observe the ground state of the two rubidium isotopes, and the first excited state using the Lamb dip apparatus. We saw the ground state hyperfine structure with the emission and the absorption spectra, and the excited state hyperfine structure with the absorption spectrum. Our measurements came within an average of 20.75 % of the accepted values.

Sources of error

The data that entered the computer was modified because it was sent through a high pass filter. The data showed 60Hz noise so each point was averaged with seven others to get a clearer graph, but that decreased the accuracy of the peaks somewhat. We did not get all of the peaks that we were expecting so our calculations were dependent on only half of the peaks that we would have liked to have had.