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Europhysics Letters (EPL)

Hydrogen atom interferometer with short light pulses

Tobias Heupel, M. Mei, Markus Niering, B. Gross, Martin Weitz, Theodor W. Hänsch, Ch. J. Bordé

Published Jan 1, 2002• 18 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the realization of a hydrogen atom interferometer experiment using light as the atomic beam splitter. The wave packets of hydrogen atoms excited to the metastable 2 S state are coherently split up and later recombined with the help of intense nanosecond light pulses. The pulses are generated by a novel phase-coherent source. These experiments can be seen as a step towards a precision measurement of the recoil energy of a hydrogen atom when absorbing a photon and thus of ℏ/ m hydrogen .

DOI
10.1209/epl/i2002-00556-5

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We report the realization of a hydrogen atom interferometer experiment using light as the atomic beam splitter. The wave packets of hydrogen atoms excited to the metastable 2 S state are coherently split up and later recombined with the help of intense nanosecond light pulses. The pulses are generated by a novel phase-coherent source. These experiments can be seen as a step towards a precision measurement of the recoil energy of a hydrogen atom when absorbing a photon and thus of ℏ/ m hydrogen .
Coherent wave splitting is crucial in interferometers. Normally, the waves after this splitting are of the same type. But recent progress in interaction between atom and light has led to the coherent conversion of photon to atomic excitation. This makes it possible to split an incoming light wave into a coherent superposition state of atom and light and paves the way for an interferometer made of different types of waves. Here we report on a Rabi-like coherent-superposition oscillation observed between atom and light and a coherent mixing of light wave with excited atomic spin wave in a Raman process. We construct a new kind of hybrid interferometer based on the atom-light coherent superposition state. Interference fringes are observed in both optical output intensity and atomic output in terms of the atomic spin wave strength when we scan either or both of the optical and atomic phases. Such a hybrid interferometer can be used to interrogate atomic states by optical detection and will find its applications in precision measurement and quantum control of atoms and light.
Atom interferometry, in which atomic waves are coherently split and later recombined, has been called the Swiss Army knife of atomic physics because of its numerous applications [1]. Atom interferometers can be used to study gravity, observe quantum effects, and measure fundamental constants. However, the spitting of atomic beams has always been a challenging task. Several beam splitters for atoms have been developed over the years, many of which rely on complex, high-powered lasers whose photons collide with atoms to steer them along separate beam paths. Paul Hamilton and colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, have built a more versatile beam splitter by using, for the first time, an optical cavity [2]. Laser pulses bounce back and forth inside the cavity, increasing the effective power in standing waves of light and reducing imperfections in the wave fronts. The light concentration within the cavity allows the use of common low-powered lasers for the initial pulses. The new design may lead to a universal atom interferometer with optical gratings that works with a wide range of atomic species.
We report here on the realization of light-pulse atom interferometers with large-momentum-transfer atom optics based on a sequence of Bragg transitions. We demonstrate momentum splitting up to 200 photon recoils in an ultracold atom interferometer. We highlight a new mechanism of destructive interference of the losses leading to a sizable efficiency enhancement of the beam splitters. We perform a comprehensive study of parasitic interferometers due to the inherent multiport feature of the quasi-Bragg pulses. Finally, we experimentally verify the phase shift enhancement and characterize the interferometer visibility loss.
We have used an echo-type atom interferometer that manipulates laser-cooled atoms in a single ground state to investigate the effect of light scattering from pulsed and continuous-wave light. The interferometer uses two off-resonant standing-wave pulses applied at times t=0t=0t=0 and t=Tt=Tt=T to diffract and recombine momentum states separated by $2\ensuremath{\hbar}k$ at t=2Tt=2Tt=2T. Matter wave interference is associated with the formation of a density grating with period $\ensuremath{\lambda}/2$ in the vicinity of this echo time. The grating contrast is measured by recording the intensity of coherently backscattered light. The interferometer is perturbed by an additional pulse applied at $t=2T\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\delta}T$ or by continuous-wave background light. If the additional pulse is a standing wave, the momentum states interfering at t=2Tt=2Tt=2T are displaced and the grating contrast can be completely recovered due to constructive interference. In this case, the contrast shows a periodic modulation at the atomic recoil frequency as a function of $\ensuremath{\delta}T$. In a recent work, it was shown that the atomic recoil frequency can be measured easily and precisely when using coherence functions to model the signal shape. This paper provides an alternative description of the signal shape through an analytical calculation of echo formation in the presence of an additional standing-wave pulse. Using this treatment, it is possible to model the effects of spontaneous emission and spatial profile of the laser beam on the signal shape. Additionally, the theory predicts scaling laws as a function of the pulse area and the number of additional standing-wave pulses. These scaling laws are investigated experimentally and can be exploited to improve precision measurements of the atomic recoil frequency. We also show that coherence functions can be used to make a direct measurement of the populations of momentum states associated with the ground state under conditions where the Doppler-broadened velocity distribution of the sample is much larger than the recoil velocity. These measurements are consistent with Monte Carlo wave-function simulations. If the additional pulse is a traveling wave, we find that the grating contrast measured as a function of $\ensuremath{\delta}T$ can be modeled by a quasiperiodic coherence function as in previous experiments that utilized atomic beams. In this work, we investigate the dependence of the photon scattering rate on the intensity and detuning of the traveling wave. We also study the effects of perturbing the interferometer with continuous-wave light and find that the dependence of the photon scattering rate on the intensity and detuning of the perturbing field is consistent with expectations.
A new type of hybrid atom-light interferometer is demonstrated with atomic Raman amplification processes replacing the beam splitting elements in a traditional interferometer. This nonconventional interferometer involves correlated optical and atomic waves in the two arms. The correlation between atoms and light developed with the Raman process makes this interferometer different from conventional interferometers with linear beam splitters. It is observed that the high-contrast interference fringes are sensitive to the optical phase via a path change as well as the atomic phase via a magnetic field change. This new atom-light correlated hybrid interferometer is a sensitive probe of the atomic internal state and should find wide applications in precision measurement and quantum control with atoms and photons.
We present a unique matter-wave interferometer whose phase scales with the cube of the time the atom spends in the interferometer. Our scheme is based on a full-loop Stern-Gerlach interferometer incorporating four magnetic field gradient pulses to create a state-dependent force. In contrast to typical atom interferometers that make use of laser light for the splitting and recombination of the wave packets, this realization uses no light and can therefore serve as a high-precision surface probe at very close distances.