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arXiv:2007.09064 · Chinese Physics B

Precision measurements with cold atoms and trapped ions*

Qiuxin Zhang, Yirong Wang, Chenhao Zhu, Yuxin Wang, Xiang Zhang, Kuiyi Gao, Wei Zhang

Published Aug 26, 2020• 13 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Recent progresses on quantum control of cold atoms and trapped ions in both the scientific and technological aspects greatly advance the applications in precision measurement. Thanks to the exceptional controllability and versatility of these massive quantum systems, unprecedented sensitivity has been achieved in clocks, magnetometers, and interferometers based on cold atoms and ions. Besides, these systems also feature many characteristics that can be employed to facilitate the applications in different scenarios. In this review, we briefly introduce the principles of optical clocks, cold atom magnetometers, and atom interferometers used for precision measurement of time, magnetic field, and inertial forces. The main content is then devoted to summarize some recent experimental and theoretical progresses in these three applications, with special attention being paid to the new designs and possibilities towards better performance. The purpose of this review is by no means to give a complete overview of all important works in this fast developing field, but to draw a rough sketch about the frontiers and show the fascinating future lying ahead.

DOI
10.1088/1674-1056/aba9c6

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Recent progresses on quantum control of cold atoms and trapped ions in both the scientific and technological aspects greatly advance the applications in precision measurement. Thanks to the exceptional controllability and versatility of these massive quantum systems, unprecedented sensitivity has been achieved in clocks, magnetometers, and interferometers based on cold atoms and ions. Besides, these systems also feature many characteristics that can be employed to facilitate the applications in different scenarios. In this review, we briefly introduce the principles of optical clocks, cold atom magnetometers, and atom interferometers used for precision measurement of time, magnetic field, and inertial forces. The main content is then devoted to summarize some recent experimental and theoretical progresses in these three applications, with special attention being paid to the new designs and possibilities towards better performance. The purpose of this review is by no means to give a complete overview of all important works in this fast developing field, but to draw a rough sketch about the frontiers and show the fascinating future lying ahead.
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The research on cold-atom interferometers gathers a large community of about 50 groups worldwide both in the academic and now in the industrial sectors. The interest in this sub-field of quantum sensing and metrology lies in the large panel of possible applications of cold-atom sensors for measuring inertial and gravitational signals with a high level of stability and accuracy. This review presents the evolution of the field over the last 30 years and focuses on the acceleration of the research effort in the last 10 years. The article describes the physics principle of cold-atom gravito-inertial sensors as well as the main parts of hardware and the expertise required when starting the design of such sensors. The author then reviews the progress in the development of instruments measuring gravitational and inertial signals, with a highlight on the limitations to the performances of the sensors, on their applications and on the latest directions of research.
High precision atom interferometers have shown attractive prospects in laboratory for testing fundamental physics and inertial sensing. Efforts on applying this innovative technology to field applications are also being made intensively. As the manipulation of cold atoms and related matching technologies mature, inertial sensors based on atom interferometry can be adapted to various indoor or mobile platforms. A series of experiments have been conducted and high performance has been achieved. In this paper, we will introduce the principles, the key technologies, and the applications of atom interferometers, and mainly review the recent progress of movable atom gravimeters.
Quantum technologies exploit entanglement to revolutionize computing, measurement, and communication. This has stimulated the research in different areas of physics to engineer and manipulate fragile many-particle entangled states. Progress has been particularly rapid for atoms. Thanks to the large and tunable nonlinearities and the well developed techniques for trapping, controlling and counting, many groundbreaking experiments have demonstrated the generation of entangled states of trapped ions, cold and ultracold gases of neutral atoms. Moreover, atoms can couple strongly to external forces and light fields, which makes them ideal for ultra-precise sensing and time keeping. All these factors call for generating non-classical atomic states designed for phase estimation in atomic clocks and atom interferometers, exploiting many-body entanglement to increase the sensitivity of precision measurements. The goal of this article is to review and illustrate successful theoretical proposals and experiments with atomic ensembles that have demonstrated many-particle entanglement and quantum-enhanced metrology.
Atoms cooled and trapped using laser light have become the backbone of modern quantum physics research. Various new applications based on laser-cooled atoms are in active development. The work described in this dissertation is dedicated to this endeavor. I present experimental and numerical investigations on several fundamental properties of the laser-cooled atoms in different quantum states and how they may translate into applications within several emerging atom-based technologies. First, I describe the precision measurements of the dynamic polarizability and photo-ionization cross-section at 1064-nm light of the 5D3/25D_{3/2}5D3/2​ state in rubidium, which is of interest for the portable atomic clocks. Two different spectroscopic methods are implemented to extract the polarizability from the experimental data. The results are statistically equivalent: -524(17) [-499(59)] atomic units from the first [second] method. The photo-ionization cross section of the 5D3/25D_{3/2}5D3/2​ state at 1064~nm is measured to be 44(1) Mb. The aforementioned photo-ionization cross section is suitable for efficient ion generation and the subsequent application in cold-atom-based ion sources. This is demonstrated in the second study presented here. The ion source employs a novel method to monitor the electric microfields of the ions using the Stark effect of the highly-excited (Rydberg) atoms seeded within the origin of the ion source. Rydberg atoms are extremely sensitive to electric fields and serve as an embedded real-time sensor and tracker of the ion-source performance because of their quasicontinuous creation and detection. The principles of such ion-microfield sensing are discussed and analyzed in detail and can be utilized in any cold-atom-based focused-ion-beam source. The hyperfine structure of the 4D3/24D_{3/2}4D3/2​ state in rubidium is investigated next. The measurement utilizes two-photon optical absorption spectroscopy and a detailed analysis of light shifts. All four hyperfine components are resolved in the experimental data. The magnetic-dipole and electric-quadrupole hyperfine constants are obtained to be 7.419(45) MHz and 4.19(19) MHz, respectively. Future applications of the 4D3/24D_{3/2}4D3/2​ state in optical atomic clocks and Rydberg-atom physics are discussed. Next, I investigate a Rydberg-atom-ion molecule bound by long-range multipolar forces. The molecule is the first example of a bound state between a Rydberg atom and an ion. Strong interactions between these two particles lead to large molecular binding energy (reaching a few GHz) and large binding length (exceeding 1 mumumum). The Born-Oppenheimer approximation does not hold for the Rydberg-atom-ion molecule because the motion of the Rydberg-atom nucleus is on the same timescale as the dynamics of the ion. The Born-Huang theory is utilized to investigate the resultant nonadiabatic dynamics of the molecule and to make the first fully quantum predictions of its lifetime as a function of the vibrational state and quantum principal number of the Rydberg atom. Lastly, I present a novel technique for atom interferometry that employs uninterrupted three-dimensional confinement and manipulation during the interferometric protocol. The atoms in the existing apparatuses have to follow several-meter-long trajectories along which various detrimental effects such as wave-packet dispersion erase useful phase information. ``Tractor atom interferometry" presented here promises to suppress the harmful effects and improve the interferometers’ sensitivity; provide flexible control over the atomic trajectories; and significantly reduce the experimental footprint. The suitability of this approach for measuring background acceleration (such as due to the gravitational field) is demonstrated. The sensitivity estimations, experimental considerations, and initial laboratory work are discussed.