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arXiv:0811.0878 · Physical Review A

Quantum sensor for atom-surface interactions below 10μm

Fiodor Sorrentino, Andrea Alberti, G. Ferrari, V. V. Ivanov, N. Poli, M. Schioppo, Guglielmo Maria Tino

Published Jan 9, 2009• 59 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We report the realization of a quantum device for force sensing at the micrometric scale. We trap an ultracold $^{88}\mathrm{Sr}$ atomic cloud with a one-dimensional (1D) optical lattice; then we place the atomic sample close to a test surface using the same optical lattice as an elevator. We demonstrate precise positioning of the sample at the micrometer scale. By observing the Bloch oscillations of atoms into the 1D optical standing wave, we are able to measure the total force on the atoms along the lattice axis, with a spatial resolution of few micrometers. We also demonstrate a technique for transverse displacement of the atoms, allowing us to perform measurements near either transparent or reflective test surfaces. In order to reduce the minimum distance from the surface, we compress the longitudinal size of the atomic sample by means of an optical tweezer. This system is suited for studies of atom-surface interaction at short distance, such as measurement of the Casimir force and the search for possible non-Newtonian gravity effects.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.79.013409

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We report the realization of a quantum device for force sensing at the micrometric scale. We trap an ultracold 88Sr^{88}\mathrm{Sr}88Sr atomic cloud with a one-dimensional (1D) optical lattice; then we place the atomic sample close to a test surface using the same optical lattice as an elevator. We demonstrate precise positioning of the sample at the micrometer scale. By observing the Bloch oscillations of atoms into the 1D optical standing wave, we are able to measure the total force on the atoms along the lattice axis, with a spatial resolution of few micrometers. We also demonstrate a technique for transverse displacement of the atoms, allowing us to perform measurements near either transparent or reflective test surfaces. In order to reduce the minimum distance from the surface, we compress the longitudinal size of the atomic sample by means of an optical tweezer. This system is suited for studies of atom-surface interaction at short distance, such as measurement of the Casimir force and the search for possible non-Newtonian gravity effects.
We report on the realization of a quantum sensor based on trapped atom interferometry in an optical lattice for the measurement of atom-surface interactions, with sub-micrometer-level control of the mean atom-surface separation distance. The force sensor reaches a short-term sensitivity of 3.4×10^{-28} N at 1 s and a long-term stability of 4 qN (4×10^{-30} N). We perform force measurements in the 0-300 μm range, and despite significant stray forces caused by adsorbed atoms on the surface, we obtain evidence of the Casimir-Polder force.
We report on the use of an ultracold ensemble of 87 Rb atoms trapped in a vertical lattice as a source for a quantum force sensor based on a Ramsey–Raman type interferometer. We reach spatial resolution in the low micrometer range in the vertical direction thanks to evaporative cooling down to ultracold temperatures in a crossed optical dipole trap. In this configuration, the coherence time of the atomic ensemble is degraded by inhomogeneous dephasing arising from atomic interactions. By weakening the confinement in the transverse direction only, we dilute the cloud and drastically reduce the strength of these interactions, without affecting the vertical resolution. This allows us to maintain an excellent relative sensitivity on the Bloch frequency, which is related to the local gravitational force, of 5 × 10 −6 at 1 s which integrates down to 8 × 10 −8 after one hour averaging time.
Summary form only given. Alkali-earth atoms have an electronic level structure particularly suited for applications in matter-wave interferometry and high-precision laser spectroscopy. Recently atomic strontium was the subject of active research in several fields such as all-optical cooling towards quantum degeneracy and detection of ultra-narrow optical transitions. Because of its small elastic cross-section, we show that ultra-cold88Sr in presence of a lattice potential is also particularly well suited for the realization of inertial sensors to accurately measure forces with micro-metric spatial resolution. By loading the sample into a vertical lattice potential we observe persistent Bloch oscillations with a damping time longer than 10 seconds, and from the measured Bloch frequency we determine the local gravity with a sensitivity of 5 x 10-6g. Our result has direct implications in force measurements at small distances from surfaces such as tests of possible deviations form the Newtonian gravity potential at sub-millimetre distances. We will present the status of a force measurement at distances below 20 mum from dielectric and metallic surfaces, which based on ultra-cold atoms undergoing Bloch oscillations. We will also report on the progress towards the realization of an optical frequency standard based on the highly forbidden1S0-3Po 88Sr intercombination line at 698 nm as well as the realization of a laser suited for precision spectroscopy on this transition.
We report on the observation of Bloch oscillations on the unprecedented time scale of several seconds. The experiment is carried out with ultracold bosonic 88Sr atoms loaded into a vertical optical standing wave. The negligible atom-atom elastic cross section and zero angular momentum in the ground state makes 88Sr an almost ideal Bose gas, insensitive to typical mechanisms of decoherence due to thermalization and external stray fields. The small size of the system enables precision measurements of forces at micrometer scale. This is a challenge in physics for studies of surfaces, Casimir effects, and searches for deviations from Newtonian gravity predicted by theories beyond the standard model.
We demonstrate the operation of an atom interferometer based on a weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate. We strongly reduce the interaction induced decoherence that usually limits interferometers based on trapped condensates by tuning the s-wave scattering length almost to zero via a magnetic Feshbach resonance. We employ a 39K condensate trapped in an optical lattice, where Bloch oscillations are forced by gravity. The fine-tuning of the scattering length down to 0.1 a_(0) and the micrometric sizes of the atomic sample make our system a very promising candidate for measuring forces with high spatial resolution. Our technique can be in principle extended to other measurement schemes opening new possibilities in the field of trapped atom interferometry.