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A new method for building an atomic matter-wave interferometry

Gao Hy, JW Chen, HL Xie, M Chen, TQ Xiao, PP Zhu, Xu Zz

Published Jan 1, 2002• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

A new method for building an atomic matter-wave interferometry is proposed. In this paper, a Fresnel zone-plate is used for restricting the linewidth of atomic beams, then a quasi-monochromatic atomic beam is obtained to illuminate four slits on a copper coil. The phenomenon of atomic interference and holograph can be observed, which is used to measure the coherent length of atomic beams.

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A new method for building an atomic matter-wave interferometry is proposed. In this paper, a Fresnel zone-plate is used for restricting the linewidth of atomic beams, then a quasi-monochromatic atomic beam is obtained to illuminate four slits on a copper coil. The phenomenon of atomic interference and holograph can be observed, which is used to measure the coherent length of atomic beams.
Although interferometry's earliest and most familiar use is with photons, the discovery of matter-wave (deBroglie-wave) interference for electrons demanded the development of quantum mechanics. Since then, matter-wave interferometry has been performed with neutrons, Cooper electron-pairs, and most recently, with whole atoms and diatomic molecules. This talk describes our recent high-flux atom interferometry experiments using the generalized Talbot-vonLau effect. Our interferometer consists of a sequence of three planar vacuum-slit diffraction gratings, microfabricated from silicon nitride membranes. DeBroglie-wave interference fringes are sensed by measuring the transmission of potassium atoms on a hot- wire as a function of grating relative position. Different spatial Fourier components (up to sixth) in the diffraction pattern are resonant in the interferometer at different atomic velocities (i.e., at different wavelengths). When a laser cooled slow atomic beam is incident, various different diffraction patterns are observed as a function of atomic velocity. In an alternative `Heisenberg Microscope' configuration an incident thermal beam produces a velocity average over different fringe Fourier components. AC modulated weak laser light passing through the interferometer interacts selectively with atoms at a specific velocity. The associated fringe pattern is then ac modulated and revealed by its selective destruction.
We present an atom interferometer based on the interference of three partial matter waves in three different internal and external states. Coherent laser excitation acts as a beamsplitter to create a superposition state of the ground state and two Zeeman sublevels of the metastable state of magnesium atoms. The interference pattern of the output ports shows high contrast and the characteristics of three-beam interferences as known from optical interferometry. In comparison to two-beam interferometry a reduction of the fringe width of (32\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}8)% is observed. This offers various possibilities for improved measurements of quantum-mechanical phases due to the internal atomic-state sensitive coupling of external potentials. This is demonstrated for the interaction of magnesium atoms with an external magnetic field.
Optics and interferometry with matter waves is the art of coherently manipulating the translational motion of particles like neutrons, atoms and molecules. Coherent atom optics is an extension of techniques that were developed for manipulating \emph{internal} quantum states. Applying these ideas to translational motion required the development of techniques to localize atoms and transfer population coherently between distant localities. In this view position and momentum are (continuouse) quantum mechanical degree of freedom analogous to discrete internal quantum states. In our contribution we start with an introduction into matter-wave optics in section 1, discuss coherent atom optics and atom interferometry techniques for molecular beams in section 2 and for trapped atoms in section 3. In section 4 we then describe tools and experiments that allow us to probe the evolution of quantum states of many-body systems by atom interference.
Summary form only given.Recent developments in atom optics have led to different approaches to lithographic techniques with neutral atoms. One of these is the use of diffraction from free-standing masks, which is sometimes called atom holography. There, narrow structures arise due to matter-wave interference in the Fresnel regime. In the presented experiment, we demonstrate that the wave nature of atoms can be used to produce periodic structures with small periodicities. We used the Talbot effect in the Fresnel diffraction regime behind a microfabricated transmission grating. The Talbot effect is the self-imaging of a grating of periodicity d illuminated with plane coherent waves.
Light pulses have proven to be a powerful and versatile tool to implement beam splitters and mirrors for matter waves enabling atom interferometers. However, for high-precision measurements with such devices the specific realization is crucial and novel techniques might increase the sensitivity. To illustrate the diversity of light-pulse beam splitting and the subtle differences between the diffraction mechanisms, we study atomic Raman, Bragg, and the new method of double Bragg diffraction in a coherent way. Moreover, we introduce a versatile formalism to determine the interference signal of a Mach-Zehnder geometry and give an interpretation in terms of proper-time difference. In addition, we explore the feasibility of a specular mirror for atoms, which might lead to an interferometer testing the equivalence principle.
We observe matter wave interference of a single cesium atom in free fall. The interferometer is an absolute sensor of acceleration and we show that this technique is sensitive to forces at the level of 3.2×10(-27) N with a spatial resolution at the micron scale. We observe the build up of the interference pattern one atom at a time in a free-space interferometer where the mean path separation extends far beyond the coherence length of the atom. Using the coherence length of the atom wave packet as a metric, we directly probe the velocity distribution and measure the temperature of a single atom in free fall.