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Journal of Modern Physics

Theory of a Kaptiza-Dirac Interferometer with Cold Trapped Atoms

Cheng Ruolei, Tianchen He, Weidong Li, Augusto Smerzi

Published Jan 1, 2016• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We theoretically analyse a multi-modes atomic interferometer consisting of a sequence of Kapitza-Dirac pulses (KD) applied to cold atoms trapped in a harmonic trap. The pulses spatially split the atomic wave-functions while the harmonic trap coherently recombines all modes by acting as a coherent spatial mirror. The phase shifts accumulated among different KD pulses are estimated by measuring the number of atoms in each output mode or by fitting the density profile. The sensitivity is rigorously calculated by the Fisher information and the Cramér-Rao lower bound. We predict, with typical experimental parameters, a temperature independent sensitivity which, in the case of the measurement of the gravitational constant g can significantly exceed the sensitivity of current atomic interferometers.

DOI
10.4236/jmp.2016.715180

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We theoretically analyse a multi-modes atomic interferometer consisting of a sequence of Kapitza-Dirac pulses (KD) applied to cold atoms trapped in a harmonic trap. The pulses spatially split the atomic wave-functions while the harmonic trap coherently recombines all modes by acting as a coherent spatial mirror. The phase shifts accumulated among different KD pulses are estimated by measuring the number of atoms in each output mode or by fitting the density profile. The sensitivity is rigorously calculated by the Fisher information and the Cramér-Rao lower bound. We predict, with typical experimental parameters, a temperature independent sensitivity which, in the case of the measurement of the gravitational constant g can significantly exceed the sensitivity of current atomic interferometers.
We design a multimode interferometer with cold atoms confined in a harmonic trap. A first Kapitza-Dirac pulse creates several spatially addressable modes which are coherently recombined by the harmonic potential and mixed again by a second Kapitza-Dirac pulse. A phase shift among the mode is estimated by fitting the density profile or by measuring the number of atoms in each output mode. The expected sensitivity is rigorously calculated with the Fisher information and the Cramér-Rao lower bound. For the measurement of the gravitational acceleration g we predict, with typical parameters of a compact setup, a temperature independent sensitivity which can exceed, by several orders of magnitude, the sensitivity of current atomic interferometers.
The interferometry of two Kapitza-Dirac (KD) pulses acting on cold atoms in a harmonic oscillator potential well is investigated by Feynman path integral method. The wave function and density distribution function of the system at a given time are calculated analytically by using the propagator under the action of an external field. The first KD pulse acts on cold atoms to produce a large number of modes in the harmonic oscillator potential well. The maximum value of wave packet of mode 0 is larger than those of other modes. These modes evolve along different paths. The external field changes the phase of each mode and makes the evolution path of the mode deviate from that without the external field. When the second KD pulse is added, it splits the mode of the first KD pulse, and thus generates more modes. These modes will evolve along different paths under the action of external field and harmonic potential well, and interfere with each other. At the moment of measurement, all the wave packets are separated without overlapping. The effect of the external field does not change the magnitude of the density distribution at the time of measurement, but makes the wave packet of each mode shift. The phase difference between adjacent modes decreases linearly with the increase of field intensity. When the external field is a gravity field, we calculate the Fisher information and the Cramer-Rao lowér bound. The Fisher information is proportional to the mass of atoms and inversely to the third power of harmonic potential well frequency. We can improve the measurement accuracy of interferometer by reducing the frequency of harmonic potential well and increasing atomic mass. When the initial state is the ground state of the harmonic potential well, the accuracy of the gravity acceleration measured by the interference device can be obtained to be 10–9 by using the experimental parameters. The initial state is the ground state of the harmonic potential well and the external field, and the calculation result indicates that the measurement accuracy will decrease. At the same time, the enhancement of inter-atomic repulsion and attraction interaction will also lead the measurement accuracy to increase.
We experimentally demonstrate a multimode interferometer comprising a Bose-Einstein condensate of 39K^{39}\mathrm{K}39K atoms trapped in a harmonic potential, where the interatomic interaction can be canceled exploiting Feshbach resonances. Kapitza-Dirac diffraction from an optical lattice coherently splits the BEC in multiple momentum components equally spaced that form different interferometric paths, with trajectories closed by the trapping harmonic potential. We investigate two different interferometric schemes, where the recombination pulse is applied after a full or half oscillation in the confining potential. We find that the relative amplitudes of the momentum components at the interferometer output are sensitive to external forces, through the induced displacement of the harmonic potential with respect to the optical lattice. We show how to calibrate the interferometer, fully characterize its output, and discuss perspective improvements.
Atom interferometers and gyroscopes are highly sensitive atom-optical devices which are capable to measure inertial, gravitational, electric, and magnetic fields and to sense rotations. Theoretically, the signal-to-noise ratio of atomic gyroscopes is about a hundred billion times more than that of their optical counterparts for the same particle flux and the enclosed area. Ultra cold atoms from a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) can easily be controlled and coherently manipulated on small chips by laser pulses. Atom-optical devices will therefore play a significant role in fundamental research, precision measurements, and navigation systems. In BEC-based atom interferometers, a BEC in a trap is split by using laser pulses, the split clouds are allowed to evolve, they are reflected, and then recombined by laser pulses to observe interference. The split clouds accumulate spatial phase because of the trap and the nonlinearity caused by atom-atom interactions. A velocity mismatch due to reflection laser pulses also introduces a phase gradient across each cloud. These factors contribute to spatial relative phase between the clouds at recombination, causing the loss of contrast of the interference fringes. The main objective of this dissertation is to study the dynamics of a split condensate in atom Michelson interferometers, investigate the effect of trap frequencies, nonlinearity, and the velocity mismatch on the contrast, and to obtain the best theoretical limit of performance in terms of the experimental parameters: trap frequencies, number of atoms, and the velocity imparted to the clouds by the splitting laser pulses.
Atom interferometers detect inertial effects with considerably larger sensitivity than that of traditional light wave interferometers. They uti- lize the relative small group velocity of coherent matter waves for more precise measurements, which is crucial for possible next-generation in- ertial navigation systems. In a hybrid optical dipole and magnetic trap system we generate Bose-Einstein condensates to be used as the source of matter waves for atom interferometry. We use tailored light pulse sequences to induce Kapitza-Dirac diffraction in the condensates, splitting them into multiple parts at discrete momentum orders. Nu- merical simulation and experimental realization is given for novel pulse sequences that splits ±4hk momentum orders.
Cold-atom interferometers use guiding potentials that split the wave function of the Bose-Einstein condensate and then recombine it. We present a theoretical analysis of the wave-function recombination instability that is due to the weak nonlinearity of the condensate. It is most pronounced when the accumulated phase difference between the arms of the interferometer is close to an odd multiple of $\ensuremath{\pi}$ and consists in exponential amplification of the weak ground state mode by the strong first excited mode. The instability exists for both trapped-atom and beam interferometers.