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arXiv:1611.08430 · Nature Communications

Measuring finite-range phase coherence in an optical lattice using Talbot interferometry

Bodhaditya Santra, Christian Baals, Ralf Labouvie, Aranya B. Bhattacherjee, Axel Pelster, Herwig Ott

Published Jun 5, 2017• 28 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

One of the important goals of present research is to control and manipulate coherence in a broad variety of systems, such as semiconductor spintronics, biological photosynthetic systems, superconducting qubits and complex atomic networks. Over the past decades, interferometry of atoms and molecules has proven to be a powerful tool to explore coherence. Here we demonstrate a near-field interferometer based on the Talbot effect, which allows us to measure finite-range phase coherence of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. We apply this interferometer to study the build-up of phase coherence after a quantum quench of a Bose-Einstein condensate residing in a one-dimensional optical lattice. Our technique of measuring finite-range phase coherence is generic, easy to adopt and can be applied in practically all lattice experiments without further modifications.

DOI
10.1038/ncomms15601

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One of the important goals of present research is to control and manipulate coherence in a broad variety of systems, such as semiconductor spintronics, biological photosynthetic systems, superconducting qubits and complex atomic networks. Over the past decades, interferometry of atoms and molecules has proven to be a powerful tool to explore coherence. Here we demonstrate a near-field interferometer based on the Talbot effect, which allows us to measure finite-range phase coherence of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. We apply this interferometer to study the build-up of phase coherence after a quantum quench of a Bose-Einstein condensate residing in a one-dimensional optical lattice. Our technique of measuring finite-range phase coherence is generic, easy to adopt and can be applied in practically all lattice experiments without further modifications.
We study both experimentally and theoretically, considering bosonic atoms in a periodic potential, the influence of interactions in a Talbot interferometer. While interactions decrease the contrast of the revivals, we find that over a wide range of interactions the Talbot signal is still proportional to the phase coherence of the matter wave field. Our results confirm that Talbot interferometry can be a useful tool to study finite-range phase correlations in an optical lattice even in the presence of interactions. The relative robustness of the Talbot signal is supported by the first demonstration of the three-dimensional Talbot effect.
Atom interferometers provide a powerful tool for measuring physical constants and affirming fundamental physics with unprecedented precision. The sensitivity of atom interferometers is significantly enhanced by optical lattices and coherent atomic sources. However, their interplay gives rise to additional complexities and intriguing phenomena. Here, we report on realizing a Ramsey-Bord\'e interferometer of coherent matter waves modified by a moving optical lattice in a gravitational field, and explore a resulting multipath interference with tunable coherence. We investigate spatial correlations of atoms both within the lattice and between two arms by interferometry, and observed the emerging multiple interference peaks of the Bose-Einstein condensate with sublattice site resolution. Our findings agree well with simulations, paving the way for high-precision interferometry and exploring rich interferometer phenomena using ultracold atoms.
Precision interferometry with atomic wavepackets confined in a one-dimensional optical lattice is an emergent paradigm in quantum sensing of forces and fields, with applications in gravimetry, accelerometry, geophysics, and fundamental physics tests. We report on the realization of a lattice-trapped interferometer where the two arms are sourced from a weakly-interacting ytterbium Bose-Einstein condensate, coherently split and trapped by pulsed optical standing waves before recombination. We directly observe atomic interactions through contrast changes and phase shifts of the interferometer. By changing either the atom number or the sample volume to vary the density, we demonstrate control over interactions and optimize interferometer performance. Our observations are effectively captured by a mean-field theoretical model of the system. This work experimentally probes the boundary where improved performance from source brightening through higher phase space density transitions into a regime beyond single-atom physics in lattice-trapped atom interferometry, and opens a door to incorporating many-body effects for metrological advances in such platforms.
The Talbot interferometer, as a periodic reproduction of momentum distribution in the time domain, finds significant applications in multiple research. The interparticle interactions during the diffraction and interference process introduce numerous many-body physics problems, leading to unconventional interference characteristics. This work investigates both experimentally and theoretically the influence of interaction in a Talbot interferometer with a 6Li2^{6}\mathrm{Li}_{2}6Li2​ molecular Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-dimensional optical lattice, with interaction strength directly tunable via magnetic Feshbach resonance. A clear dependence of the period and amplitude of signal revivals on the interaction strength can be observed. While interactions increase the decay rate of the signal and advance the revivals, we find that over a wide range of interactions, the Talbot interferometer remains highly effective over a certain evolutionary timescale, including the case of fractional Talbot interference. This work provides insight into the interplay between interaction and the coherence properties of a temporal Talbot interference in optical lattices, paving the way for research into quantum interference in strongly interacting systems.
Disordered potentials fundamentally affect transport and coherence in quantum systems, giving rise to a Bose-glass phase in interacting bosonic systems—an insulating yet compressible phase lacking long-range coherence. Directly measuring a reduced coherence length of the Bose glass has been a outstanding challenge. We address this by employing Talbot interferometry combined with single-atom-resolved detection in a quantum-gas microscope. Using ultracold bosonic atoms in a two-dimensional lattice with site-resolved, reproducible disorder, we identify the Bose-glass phase through density distributions and particle-number fluctuations, quantified via the Edwards-Anderson parameter, and through the visibility of interference patterns after time of flight. By driving the system across the Bose-glass phase, we further observe signatures of nonergodic dynamics. Our studies provide a starting point to further explore disordered systems in and out of equilibrium, and are relevant for understanding the dynamics and stability of disordered and glasslike quantum states in solid-state systems.
We report on experiments investigating quantum transport and band interferometry of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice with a two-band miniband structure, realized with a Fourier-synthesized optical lattice potential. Bloch-Zener oscillations, the coherent superposition of Bloch oscillations and Landau-Zener tunneling between the two bands, are observed. When the relative phase between paths in different bands is varied, an interference signal is observed, demonstrating the coherence of the dynamics in the miniband system. Measured fringe patterns of this Stückelberg interferometer allow us to interferometrically map out the band structure of the optical lattice over the full Brillouin zone.