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arXiv:2308.04134 · Physical Review Research

Bloch oscillation phases investigated by multipath Stückelberg atom interferometry

Tahiyat Rahman, Anna Wirth-Singh, Andrew Ivanov, Daniel Gochnauer, E. W. Hough, Subhadeep Gupta

Published Apr 15, 2024• 9 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Atoms undergoing Bloch oscillations (BOs) in an accelerating optical lattice acquire momentum of two photon recoils per BO. This technique provides a large momentum transfer tool for atom optics, but its full exploitation for atom interferometric sensors requires both experimental and theoretical characterization of associated phases. Each BO involves a Landau-Zener crossing with multiple crossings inducing interference known as Stückelberg interference. We develop a multipath Stückelberg interferometer and investigate atomic phase evolution during BOs, up to 100 photon recoil momentum transfer. We compare to numerically calculated single-particle Schrödinger evolution, demonstrate highly coherent BO sequences, and assess phase stability requirements for BO-enhanced precision interferometry in fundamental physics and sensing applications. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

DOI
10.1103/physrevresearch.6.l022012

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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 to interferometrically map out the band structure of the optical lattice over the full Brillouin zone.
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.
Atom interferometers exploit the wave nature of matter to measure inertial forces with high precision, but conventional light-pulse implementations typically require large free-fall distances and complex optical systems. Bloch-band interferometry offers an alternative architecture in which atoms remain confined within an optical lattice and interferometric operations are implemented through controlled transitions between Bloch bands. This thesis investigates Bloch-band interferometry with particular emphasis on robustness to phase decoherence and operation in the deep-lattice regime. The work begins with multi-well models that provide intuition for tunneling, interference, and phase coherence. Phase scrambling was introduced to model loss of coherence, demonstrating that interference contrast is reduced but not eliminated. These insights motivated a full momentum-space simulation of a Bloch-band Michelson interferometer, including splitting, transport, reflection, and recombination. Acceleration scans with site-to-site phase randomness showed that interferometric fringes and sensitivity persist even with reduced coherence. Building on this robustness, Bloch-band interferometry was extended to a deep optical lattice with depth of 27 times the recoil energy. Higher Bloch bands were used to define interferometric pathways, and machine-learned shaking functions were implemented to realize beamsplitter and mirror operations. The resulting deep-lattice interferometer exhibits acceleration-dependent population fringes and measurable sensitivity. To our knowledge, this work presents the first exploration of Bloch-band interferometry in the deep-lattice regime and demonstrates the first realization of a deep-lattice Bloch-band interferometer for inertial sensing. These results suggest that Bloch-band interferometry can remain operational in regimes approaching the insulating limit, providing a potential route toward compact and robust quantum inertial sensors.
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