Coherent Manipulation and Interferometry

F. De Martini, G. Denardo, Anton Zeilinger

Jean-François Schaff, Tim Langen, Jörg Schmiedmayer

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.

P. D. Featonby, C. L. Webb, G. S. Summy +3 more

The wave nature of particles has been demonstrated in many experiments and it continues to be an active area of research [1]. Optical elements for atoms such as beam splitters and mirrors have been used for the manipulation of atomic deBroglie waves. Many of these elements use light forces which under certain conditions allow the coherent manipulation of the atoms and thus are important for atom interferometry. Atom interferometers have many uses, including the precise measurement of fundamental constants.

Ángel S. Sanz, Salvador Miret-Artés

Peter Hawkes, Erwin K. Kasper

Hriday Dath, S. Kannan, V N Radhika

Atom interferometry as a rapidly growing field has garnered a lot of interest in recent years for developing extremely accurate quantum sensors. It has been demonstrated by numerous research groups worldwide for a wide range of applications. In this work, we demonstrate the coherent manipulation of ultra-cold Rubidium (87Rb) atoms with Raman laser pulses in the transportable gravimeter setup based on cold atom interferometry developed at ISRO Inertial Systems Unit. The achievement of coherent manipulation is carried out by demonstrating the Rabi oscillations in ultra-cold ensemble. The obtained oscillation frequency is found to be very well matching with the theoretical calculation. Subsequently, we demonstrate Ramsey fringes by applying two π/2 pulses with a time gap depending on Rabi oscillation frequency.