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arXiv:1601.00355 · Atoms

Atom Interferometry in the Presence of an External Test Mass

B. Dubetsky, Stephen B. Libby, P. R. Berman

Published Apr 21, 2016• 12 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The influence of an external test mass on the phase of the signal of an atom interferometer is studied theoretically. Using traditional techniques in atom optics based on the density matrix equations in the Wigner representation, we are able to extract the various contributions to the phase of the signal associated with the classical motion of the atoms, the quantum correction to this motion resulting from atomic recoil that is produced when the atoms interact with Raman field pulses and quantum corrections to the atomic motion that occur in the time between the Raman field pulses. By increasing the effective wave vector associated with the Raman field pulses using modified field parameters, we can increase the sensitivity of the signal to the point where such quantum corrections can be measured. The expressions that are derived can be evaluated numerically to isolate the contribution to the signal from an external test mass. The regions of validity of the exact and approximate expressions are determined.

DOI
10.3390/atoms4020014

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The influence of an external test mass on the phase of the signal of an atom interferometer is studied theoretically. Using traditional techniques in atom optics based on the density matrix equations in the Wigner representation, we are able to extract the various contributions to the phase of the signal associated with the classical motion of the atoms, the quantum correction to this motion resulting from atomic recoil that is produced when the atoms interact with Raman field pulses and quantum corrections to the atomic motion that occur in the time between the Raman field pulses. By increasing the effective wave vector associated with the Raman field pulses using modified field parameters, we can increase the sensitivity of the signal to the point where such quantum corrections can be measured. The expressions that are derived can be evaluated numerically to isolate the contribution to the signal from an external test mass. The regions of validity of the exact and approximate expressions are determined.
The contribution to the phase of the atom interferometer caused by the gravity field of a massive test mass is considered. This contribution can be extracted by applying the double difference technique to measure the Newtonian gravitational constant G. Estimates and further calculations showed that after choosing the largest (given the current state of the art) multiphoton wave vector, the time delay between pulses, the mass of the test body and the signal optimization in respect to atomic positions and velocities, one should be able to obtain an accurate G measurement of 200 ppb, which is 2-3 orders of magnitude more accurate than what can currently be obtained. Calculated variations of the phases under the small deviations of atomic variables made it clear that atom clouds' radii and temperatures have to be as small as 100 micron and 100 pK, which has also been achieved already.
In the presence of Earth gravity and gravity-gradient forces, centrifugal and Coriolis forces caused by the Earth rotation, the phase of the time-domain atom interferometers is calculated with accuracy up to the terms proportional to the fourth degree of the time separation between pulses. We considered double-loop atom interferometers and found appropriate condition to eliminate their sensitivity to acceleration to get atomic gyroscope, or to eliminate the sensitivity to rotation to increase accuracy of the atomic gravimeter. Consequent use of these interferometers allows one to measure all components of the acceleration and rotation frequency projection on the plane perpendicular to gravity acceleration. Atom interference on the Raman transition driving by noncounterpropagating optical fields is proposed to exclude stimulated echo processes which can affect the accuracy of the atomic gyroscopes. Using noncounterpropagating optical fields allows one to get a new type of the Ramsey fringes arising in the unidirectional Raman pulses and therefore centered at the two-quantum line center. Density matrix in the Wigner representation is used to perform calculations. It is shown that in the time between pulses, in the noninertial frame, for atoms with fully quantized spatial degrees of freedom, this density matrix obeys classical Liouville equations.
A new approach to the theory of atoms' interaction with chirped Raman pulses is developed. When the pulses have sufficiently close effective wave lengths, which are smaller than the atomic cloud size, equations for the family of the matrix elements of the atomic density matrix in the Wigner representation are derived. The solution, involving linear (in the pulse duration) phase corrections, is obtained for the rectangular pulse. The interferometric part of the atoms' excitation is calculated.
Atomic gravimeter based on atom interferometry has become a hotspot of quantum optics applications in recent years and shown rapid progress in static-scene measurements. Improving the adaptability on dynamic scenes is an important development direction, which calls for in-depth research on various errors caused by carrier motions. This work focuses on the error evaluation and compensation of motion-induced misalignment between the Raman laser beam and the atomic trajectory. A theoretical analysis framework is formed to investigate the atom-laser misalignment errors by considering both the inhomogeneous Raman laser intensity and wavefront phase distributions in a dynamic perspective. The influence on fringe contrast and phase shift in an atom-interferometry gravimeter is discussed. Quantitative study has been done with different motion types, motion rates as well as random motion noises. The results show oscillational decay trends of fringe contrast with the motion amplitude and the increased significance of rotationally antisymmetric Zernike terms in dynamical Raman wavefront phase shift evaluation. Strong correlations can be found between the misalignment errors and the experimental parameters. A compensation method is proposed accordingly via quickly adjusting the Raman intensity or pulse duration and comprehensive Raman wavefront characterization. Both amplitude and phase corrections are achieved. The analytical approach and results provide a practical solution for further advances of atom-interferometry under harsh motional conditions.
Imperfect Raman pulses can lead to the formation of multiple interfering paths and affect the output of an atom interferometer in high-precision measurement.We study the effect of the imperfect Raman pulses on the interferometric fringe contrast and the phase shift in the three-pulse atom interferometer by using the evolution operator method.Analytical expressions expanded to the second-order fluctuation of imperfect pulses are derived, in which the effect of coupling the imperfect pulses with laser detuning and pulse duration is also considered.The result indicates that the second-order fluctuation of imperfect pulses is dominant, however, it can be nearly ignored in the current requirements of atomic experiments.Even so, theoretical analysis is very necessary as it may be helpful in proposing some schemes to improve the interference efficiency for future high-precision measurements with atomic interferometry.
It is proposed to use rectangular Raman pulses for the technique of sequential large momentum transfer. It is shown that the small parameters that make it possible to use this technology for precision atom interferometry can be 40--200 times smaller than in the case of the Bragg regime. It is predicted that in the case of a nonequidistant timing of auxiliary pulses, one can observe oscillations in time of the interference picture with a period inversely proportional to the recoil frequency. Such an observation would be confirmation that Mach-Zehnder atom interference is a phenomenon caused by the quantization of the atomic center-of-mass motion. This effect is calculated for any shape of pulses. One can observe it in the Bragg regime as well. It is proposed to use noncontinuous composite Raman pulses as auxiliary beam splitters so that the effective Rabi frequency remains unchanged for the entire process. The gravity phase of an atomic interferometer is calculated for any shape, duration, and timing of Raman pulses, including the Bragg regime. The phase corrections caused by the finite pulses' durations are also calculated for the rectangular Raman pulse shape.