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Journal de Physique IV (Proceedings)

Lithium atom interferometry

Marion Jacquey, Alain Miffre, M Büchner, G. Trénec, J. Vigué

Published Oct 1, 2006• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

\nWe have built an atom interferometer of the Mach Zehnder type. The\natomic wave ($\\lambda_{\\it dB}=54$ pm) is a supersonic beam of\nlithium seeded in argon. The realization of mirrors and beams\nsplitters for the atomic wave relies on elastic Bragg diffraction on\nlaser standing waves at $\\lambda= 671$ nm. We first present our\nexperimental setup and signals with atomic fringes which exhibit a\nvery high visibility, up to $84.5 \\pm 1 \\%$, and a very large phase\nsensitivity. This phase sensitivity is then used to perform an\nabsolute measurement of the lithium atom electric polarizability by\napplying an electric field on only one atomic beam in the\ninterferometer. Our result, $\\alpha= (24.33 \\pm 0.16) \\times\n10^{-30}$ m$^3$, reduces by a factor three the uncertainty of the\nbest previous measurement.\n

DOI
10.1051/jp4:2006135003

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\nWe have built an atom interferometer of the Mach Zehnder type. The\natomic wave (lambdaitdB=54\\lambda_{\\it dB}=54lambdaitdB​=54 pm) is a supersonic beam of\nlithium seeded in argon. The realization of mirrors and beams\nsplitters for the atomic wave relies on elastic Bragg diffraction on\nlaser standing waves at lambda=671\\lambda= 671lambda=671 nm. We first present our\nexperimental setup and signals with atomic fringes which exhibit a\nvery high visibility, up to 84.5pm184.5 \\pm 1 \\%84.5pm1, and a very large phase\nsensitivity. This phase sensitivity is then used to perform an\nabsolute measurement of the lithium atom electric polarizability by\napplying an electric field on only one atomic beam in the\ninterferometer. Our result, alpha=(24.33pm0.16)times\n10−30\\alpha= (24.33 \\pm 0.16) \\times\n10^{-30}alpha=(24.33pm0.16)times\n10−30 m3^33, reduces by a factor three the uncertainty of the\nbest previous measurement.\n
We have built and operated an atom interferometer of the Mach-Zehnder type. The atomic wave is a supersonic beam of lithium seeded in argon and the mirrors and beam-splitters for the atomic wave are based on elastic Bragg diffraction on laser standing waves at 671 nm. We give here a detailed description of our experimental setup and of the procedures used to align its components. We then present experimental signals, exhibiting atomic interference effects with a very high visibility, up to 84.5 %. We describe a series of experiments testing the sensitivity of the fringe visibility to the main alignment defects and to the magnetic field gradient.
We have built an atom interferometer and, by applying an electric field on one of the two interfering beams, we have measured the static electric polarizability of lithium $\ensuremath{\alpha}=(24.33\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.16)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}30}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{m}}^{3}$ with a 0.66% uncertainty. Our experiment is similar to an experiment done on sodium in 1995 by Pritchard and co-workers, with several improvements: the electric field can be calculated analytically and the interference signals have a large intensity and a high visibility, resulting in accurate phase measurements. This experiment illustrates the extreme sensitivity of atom interferometry: when the atom enters the electric field, its velocity increases and the fractional change, equal to $4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}9}$ for our largest field, is measured with a ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ accuracy.
\nWe have built an atom interferometer of the Mach-Zehnder type, operating with thermal lithium atoms [1]. Its design is largely inspired by previous works done by the groups of D. Pritchard [2], A. Zeilinger [3] and S.A. Lee [4]. In our apparatus, the atomic wave is diffracted in the Bragg regime by three laser sanding waves to achieve a Mach-Zehnder configuration. This paper briefly recalls the diffraction process and shows the experimental results obtained in our group. Our apparatus is able to achieve a high fringe contrast of 74 % with a large mean detected atom flux of 1.5times1041.5 \\times 10^{4}1.5times104s−1^{-1}−1. Finally, the paper ends with the measurement of the velocity distribution of our lithium beam using a light induced fluorescence technique.\n
We have developed a Mach-Zehnder atom interferometer which uses elastic diffraction of lithium atom on laser standing waves for the coherent manipulation of the atom wave. The interference signal is of sufficient quality to achieve a phase sensitivity near 10 milliradians/. With this apparatus, we have recently measured the index of refraction of several gases for lithium waves. The interference signals give access to the real and imaginary parts of () and we have tested the linear dependence of these two quantities with gas density. The measured values of () are in good agreement with calculations and they exhibit glory oscillations, as predicted by theory.
We have constructed an atom interferometer using three 200 nm period transmission gratings. The two interfering portions of each atom’s wave pass on opposite sides of a stretched metal foil. A fringe amplitude of up to 900 cps is observed, which allows us to determine the phase to 15 milliradians in 1 minute. By applying different interactions to the two sides of the interferometer, we have determined the electric polarizability of the ground state of sodium, the coherence length of our beam, and the differential phase shifts and coherences of the different Zeeman ground states in a magnetic field. Some future prospects of separated beam experiments are discussed.