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arXiv:1306.1308

Phase-Shift Plateaus in the Sagnac Effect for Matter Waves

Martin C. Kandes, R. Carretero-González, M. W. J. Bromley

Published Jun 6, 2013• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We simulate ultracold Sagnac atom interferometers using quantum-mechanical matter wavepackets, e.g. Bose-Einstein condensates, that counter-propagate within a rotating ring-trap. We find that the accumulation of the relative phase difference between wavepackets, i.e. the matter wave Sagnac effect, is manifested as discrete phase jumps. These plateaus result from three effects; that the atoms should be initially trapped at rest with respect to the rotating frame, that they counter-propagate with the same group velocities in the rotating frame, and that the imaging is performed in the rotating frame. We show that the plateaus persist in the presence of nonlinear atom-atom interactions, and in atoms undergoing various rotations, and thus will occur during matter wavepacket experiments. We also introduce the simplest possible Sagnac atom interferometry scheme which relies on wavepacket dispersion around a ring-trap.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1306.1308

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We simulate ultracold Sagnac atom interferometers using quantum-mechanical matter wavepackets, e.g. Bose-Einstein condensates, that counter-propagate within a rotating ring-trap. We find that the accumulation of the relative phase difference between wavepackets, i.e. the matter wave Sagnac effect, is manifested as discrete phase jumps. These plateaus result from three effects; that the atoms should be initially trapped at rest with respect to the rotating frame, that they counter-propagate with the same group velocities in the rotating frame, and that the imaging is performed in the rotating frame. We show that the plateaus persist in the presence of nonlinear atom-atom interactions, and in atoms undergoing various rotations, and thus will occur during matter wavepacket experiments. We also introduce the simplest possible Sagnac atom interferometry scheme which relies on wavepacket dispersion around a ring-trap.
The Sagnac effect enables interferometric measurements of rotation with high precision. Using matter waves instead of light promises resolution enhancement by orders of magnitude that scales with particle mass. So far, the paradigm for matter wave Sagnac interferometry relies on de Broglie waves and thus on free propagation of atoms either in free fall or within waveguides. However, the Sagnac effect can be expressed as a proper time difference experienced by two observers moving in opposite directions along closed paths and has indeed been measured with atomic clocks flown around Earth. Inspired by this, we investigate an interferometer comprised of a single atomic clock. The Sagnac effect manifests as a phase shift between trapped atoms in different internal states after transportation along closed paths in opposite directions, without any free propagation. With analytic models, we quantify limitations of the scheme arising from atomic dynamics and finite temperature. Furthermore, we suggest an implementation with previously demonstrated technology.
We theoretically analyze the operating principles of a proposed matter-wave Sagnac interferometer utilizing Bose-Einstein-condensate (BEC) phonon modes as an interference medium. Previous work found that the orbital angular momentum phonon modes of a ring-trapped BEC are split in frequency by rotations, leading to a measurable rotation signal. We develop an alternate description in which an imbalance in the counterpropagating modes' amplitudes (populations) is induced by the rotation of the system during condensation. This description gives analytic forms for the interferometic phase shift in one dimension and is readily generalized to include mean-field interactions. To validate our findings, we simulate a ring-trapped BEC Sagnac interferometer in one dimension and demonstrate that measurement of an unknown rotation rate can be performed using a modified analysis. Our simulation data show strong agreement with our analytic results, and we further employ simulations to explore and clarify the role of superfluidity in this matter-wave Sagnac interferometer.
A gyroscope based on Sagnac interferometer measures the rotation rate relative to an inertial frame of reference. Sagnac effect originally has been derived and experimentally demonstrated with optical waves. Later, matter wave based Sagnac interferometers were developed due to inherent sensitivity over a photon based system. However in any interferometer whether it is photon or matter wave based the resultant phase shift due to counter-rotating waves is independent of the wave velocity. Here we show that one can have a larger phase shift with slower matter waves using Aharonov-Bohm effect: the phase difference of the counter propagating waves is proportional to the inverse square of the particle velocity.
Matter-wave interferometry with atoms propagating in a guiding potential is expected to provide compact, scalable and precise inertial sensing. However, a rotation sensing device based on the Sagnac effect with atoms guided in a ring has not yet been implemented despite continuous efforts during the last two decades. Here we discuss some intrinsic effects that limit the coherence in such a device and propose a scheme that overcomes these limitations and enables a multi-pass guiding Sagnac interferometer with a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) on a chip in a ring potential. We analyze crucial dephasing effects: potential roughness, phase diffusion due to atom-atom interactions and number uncertainty, and phase fluctuations. Owing to the recent progress in achieving high momentum beam splitting, creating smooth guides, and manipulating the matter-wavepacket propagation, guided interferometry can be implemented within the coherence time allowed by phase diffusion. Despite the lower particle flux in a guided Sagnac ring and the miniaturization of the interferometer, the estimated sensitivity, for reasonable and practical realizations of an atom chip-based gyroscope, is comparable to that of free-space interferometers, reaching 45 nrads^{-1}Hz^{-1/2}. A significant improvement over state-of-the-art free-space gyrocope sensitivities can be envisioned by using thermal atoms instead of a BEC, whereby the interferometer can be operated in a continuous fashion with the coherence limited by the scattering rate of the atoms with the background gas. Taking into account the sensitivity times length of the interferometer as the figure of merit which takes into account compactness, our configuration is expected to deliver a potential improvement of 2-4 orders of magnitude over state-of-the-art free-space gyroscopes for a BEC, and 4-6 orders of magnitude for thermal atoms.
The Sagnac effect, manifest in the phase shift of a rotating interferometer proportional to its physical area and to the rotation rate of the frame, plays a crucial role in modern physics being generalized to any kind of interferometer. However, as compared to light, the accurate experimental validation of the Sagnac effect for matter-waves remains challenging. We report the accurate measurement of the Sagnac phase shift, induced by the Earth’s rotation, using a large-area cold atom interferometer. We probe the atomic Sagnac phase shift along the two orthogonal horizontal axes in various orientation of the sensor with respect to geographic north and obtain an agreement with the theoretical prediction at the 20 ppm level, improving by twenty five-fold over the previous achievements for matter waves. Our results underline the universality of the Sagnac effect and open new horizons for testing other fundamental theories, as well as for a number of technological applications in seismology, geodesy and inertial navigation systems.
The ability to interferometrically detect inertial rotations via the Sagnac effect has been a strong stimulus for the development of atom interferometry because of the potential 1010{10}^{10}1010 enhancement of the rotational phase shift in comparison to optical Sagnac gyroscopes. Here we analyze ballistic transport of matter waves in a one-dimensional chain of NNN coherently coupled quantum rings in the presence of a rotation of angular frequency $\ensuremath{\Omega}$. We show that the transmission probability, TTT, exhibits zero transmission stop gaps as a function of the rotation rate interspersed with regions of rapidly oscillating finite transmission. With increasing NNN, the transition from zero transmission to the oscillatory regime becomes an increasingly sharp function of $\ensuremath{\Omega}$ with a slope $\ensuremath{\partial}T/\ensuremath{\partial}\ensuremath{\Omega}\ensuremath{\sim}{N}^{2}$. The steepness of this slope dramatically enhances the response to rotations in comparison to conventional single ring interferometers such as the Mach-Zehnder interferometer and leads to a phase sensitivity well below the quantum shot-noise limit typical of atom interferometers.