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Europhysics Letters (EPL)

Atomic Interferometry with Metastable Hydrogen Atoms

Jacques Robert, Christian Miniatura, S. Le Boiteux, J. Reinhardt, Valerij Bočvarski, J. Baudon

Published Sep 1, 1991• 47 citations
Publisher

Abstract

An atomic interferometer using the longitudinal Stern-Gerlach effect has been constructed. A thermal beam of metastable hydrogen atoms has been used to test the apparatus. Interference patterns have been obtained. The visibility of the fringes is limited by the velocity spread of the beam. The observed patterns are in good agreement with that predicted from the actual velocity distribution.

DOI
10.1209/0295-5075/16/1/006

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An atomic interferometer using the longitudinal Stern-Gerlach effect has been constructed. A thermal beam of metastable hydrogen atoms has been used to test the apparatus. Interference patterns have been obtained. The visibility of the fringes is limited by the velocity spread of the beam. The observed patterns are in good agreement with that predicted from the actual velocity distribution.
A double atom interferometer based upon the Stern-Gerlach method in which the first interferometer acts as a ``nonordinary'' source for the second one is described. Experiments have been carried out with a wide-velocity-distribution beam of metastable hydrogen atoms, using two different operating modes: (i) continuous mode in which the magnitude of the magnetic field in the first interferometer is fixed whereas that of the second one is scanned; (ii) time-of-flight mode in which both magnetic fields are fixed. In the former case lateral interference patterns appear, in the latter one an overmodulation of the time-of-flight distribution is observed. It is predicted that this overmodulation becomes more and more marked as the number of interferometers is increased, leading to a limiting behavior characteristic of a quantum Zeno effect.
As shown recently by Zawisky, Rauch, and Hasegawa in neutron interferometry [Phys. Rev. A 50, 5000 (1994)], the interference pattern obtained with a low-intensity particle beam is deeply modified when a selection is made of the time intervals between successive detected events. Experiments of the same type performed with a Stern-Gerlach interferometer using a metastable hydrogen atom beam are described. Results very similar to those of the neutron experiment are obtained, in particular a strong enhancement of the contrast when large time intervals are selected.
A quadrupolar static magnetic field used as a phase object in a Stern-Gerlach atom interferometer produces phase shifts proportional to the distance to the zero-field line. As a consequence the transverse intensity profile of the atomic beam beyond the interferometer is modulated by an interference pattern which is a ``phase portrait'' of the field configuration. This pattern---a central bright spot surrounded by annular fringes---can be translated as a whole in any transverse direction by adding a homogeneous field to the quadrupolar field. These effects have been investigated experimentally with a beam of metastable hydrogen atoms H∗(2s),{\mathrm{H}}^{*}(2s),H∗(2s), either by measuring the atom flux through a fixed slit or by scanning the beam profile through a movable hole. The results are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.
An atom interferometer using two Stern-Gerlach magnets as polariser and analyser is described. The interferometer was first operated with a thermal beam of ground state potassium atoms. In that case the beam splitters are two radio-frequency zones within a transverse homogeneous magnetic field building a coherent superposition of Zeeman states. Ramsey fringes are obtained by scanning the RF-frequency through the resonance profile. Pulsing the RF power allows to get the time-of-flight distribution of the beam. Atomic interference fringes (``Stern-Gerlach fringes'') are observed when the magnitude of an inhomogeneous magnetic field located in between the beam splitters is scanned. When the inhomogeneous field is also pulsed, the scalar Bohm-Aharonov effect is observed. The use of metastable helium atoms (He*23S) in place of potassium atoms is proposed. In addition to the usual advantages provided by metastable atoms of high internal energy, this atom offers the specific advantage to behave as an ideal spin-one particle. This allows us to greatly simplify the polarisation scheme of the interferometer. Possible applications involving transversally inhomogeneous magnetic fields are given and limitations due to the finite source size and angular aperture are discussed.