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Physical Review A

Atomic spatial coherence monitoring and engineering with magnetic fields

É. Maréchal, Romain Long, T. Miossec, J.-L. Bossennec, R. Barbé, J. Keller, O. Gorceix

Published Oct 13, 2000• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report on a simple and versatile method by which to measure and tailor massive particle ensemble coherences using pulsed magnetic fields. A multiple wave atom interferometer is demonstrated that uses a spin-echo procedure associated with the spatial separation of the Zeeman sublevel wave packets induced by magnetic forces. This scheme provides a means to determine ultralow temperatures by measuring the sample coherence length. Furthermore, we show how a pulsed quasiparabolic magnetic potential can be used to enhance the atom ensemble coherence length by a factor of 2.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.62.053603

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We report on a simple and versatile method by which to measure and tailor massive particle ensemble coherences using pulsed magnetic fields. A multiple wave atom interferometer is demonstrated that uses a spin-echo procedure associated with the spatial separation of the Zeeman sublevel wave packets induced by magnetic forces. This scheme provides a means to determine ultralow temperatures by measuring the sample coherence length. Furthermore, we show how a pulsed quasiparabolic magnetic potential can be used to enhance the atom ensemble coherence length by a factor of 2.
Summary form only given. Spatial coherences are measured by means of a new atom interferometry technique. First, a coherent superposition of the Zeeman components of the atom is built by means of well-controlled magnetic interactions. Second, pulsed inhomogeneous magnetic fields are employed to coherently separate and reunite the atomic substates via the Stern-Gerlach induced forces. Finally, atomic interference fringes are recorded on the state-selected outcoming sample by changing the spatial separation. This method bears strong similarities with the Fourier-transform spectroscopy of light. The interferogram visibility curve yields the atom sample spatial coherences. For example, when the applied magnetic gradients are parallel to the atom trajectory, one gets the coherence length by varying the overlap of the separated wavepackets. Several experiments on cold cesium atoms have been performed and are presented. Furthermore, we have used our magnetic cooling method to prepare the atom cloud upstream from the interferometer. Large enhancements of the coherence length are demonstrated.
We demonstrate a novel type of cesium atom interferometer which uses a combination of a microwave ground state transition and momentum changing adiabatic transfer light pulses as the atom optical components. It is the first atom interferometer where the mechanism which forms the internal superposition plays no part in spatially splitting the atomic wave packets. The coherence length of the atom source is found by measuring the spatial correlation between the two interferometer arms. This allows us to determine the temperature of the atomic ensemble.
Engineering quantum particle systems, such as quantum simulators and quantum cellular automata, relies on full coherent control of quantum paths at the single particle level. Here we present an atom interferometer operating with single trapped atoms, where single particle wave packets are controlled through spin-dependent potentials. The interferometer is constructed from a sequence of discrete operations based on a set of elementary building blocks, which permit composing arbitrary interferometer geometries in a digital manner. We use this modularity to devise a space-time analogue of the well-known spin echo technique, yielding insight into decoherence mechanisms. We also demonstrate mesoscopic delocalization of single atoms with a separation-to-localization ratio exceeding 500; this result suggests their utilization beyond quantum logic applications as nano-resolution quantum probes in precision measurements, being able to measure potential gradients with precision 5 x 10(-4) in units of gravitational acceleration g.
We have used two sets of orthogonally polarized traveling-wave pulses separated in time to establish and, subsequently, rephase a spatially periodic coherence grating between the magnetic sublevels of the F=3F=3F=3 ground state in a cloud of laser-cooled 85Rb{}^{85}\mathrm{Rb}85Rb atoms. The rephasing results in a magnetic grating echo (MGE). We have used the shape of the signals to determine both transverse and longitudinal velocity distributions and to study the effects of magnetic fields. The amplitude of the MGE with counterpropagating pulses is modulated at the atomic recoil frequency, a consequence of matter wave interference.
Atom interferometry with high visibility is of high demand for precision measurements. Here, a parallel multicomponent interferometer is achieved by preparing a spin-2 Bose-Einstein condensate of 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms confined in a hybrid magneto-optical trap. After the preparation of a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate with spin degrees of freedom entangled, we observe four spatial interference patterns in each run of measurements corresponding to four hyperfine states we mainly populate in the experiment. The atomic populations in different Zeeman sublevels are made controllably using magnetic-field-pulse induced Majorana transitions. The spatial separation of atom cloud in different hyperfine states is reached by Stern-Gerlach momentum splitting. The high visibility of the interference fringes is reached by designing a proper overlap of the interfering wave packets. Due to uncontrollable phase accumulation in Majorana transitions, the phase of each individual spin is found to be subjected to unreproducible shift in multiple experimental runs. However, the relative phase across different spins is stable, paving a way towards noise-resilient multicomponent parallel interferometers.
An atom interferometer based on a Stern-Gerlach beam splitter is proposed. Atom scattering from a combination of magnetic quadrupole and homogeneous magnetic fields is considered. Using Raman transitions, atoms are coherently excited into and de-excited from sublevels having nonzero magnetic quantum numbers. The spatial regions in which the atoms are in such sublevels are small and have magnetic fields designed to have constant gradients. Therefore, the atoms experience position-independent accelerations, and the aberration of the coherently separated and recombined atomic beams remains small. We find that because of these properties it is possible to envision an apparatus producing atomic density gratings with nm-scale periods and large contrasts over 10-100 μμμm. We use a new method of describing the atomic interaction with a pulsed spatially homogeneous field. In our detailed analysis, we calculate corrections caused by the non-linear part of the potential and the finite value of the de-Broglie wave length. The chromatic aberration and the effects of an angular beam divergence are analyzed, and optimal conditions for an experimental demonstration of the technique are identified.%The lin⊥lin\bot %linlin⊥ combination of resonant co-propagating traveling waves splits %atoms between different Zeeman sublevels. %For a given desirable atom %grating period and length, characteristics of the atomic beam and %magnetic field are found from requirements that corrections remain %below 1010%.10