Population of atoms in the output of an atom Michelson interferometer

Ebubechukwu O. Ilo-Okeke, Alex A. Zozulya

Dana Z. Anderson

V. I. Balykin

Catie LeDesma, Kendall Mehling, Murray Holland

Two kinds of multidimensional atom interferometers are demonstrated that are capable of measuring both the magnitude and direction of applied inertial forces. These interferometers, built from ultracold Bose-Einstein condensed rubidium atoms, use an original design that operates entirely within the Bloch bands of an optical lattice. Through time-dependent lattice position control, we realize Bloch oscillations in two dimensions and a vector atomic Michelson interferometer. Fits to the observed Bloch oscillations demonstrate the measurement of an applied acceleration of 2 g along two axes, where g is Earth’s gravitational acceleration. For the Michelson interferometer, we perform Bayesian inferencing from a 49-channel output by repeating experiments for two-axis accelerations and demonstrate vector parameter estimation. Accelerations can be measured from single experimental runs and do not require repeated shots to construct a fringe. The performance of our device is near the quantum limit for the interferometer size and quantum detection efficiency of the atoms.

Moore, RPB

The goal of this thesis is to study a novel approach towards all-optical continuous waveguide interferometers based on quasi-Bragg waveguide beam splitters. The Bragg beam splitter for matter waves is comprised of a periodic lattice produced by partial or full interference between two Gaussian laser beams and are used as waveguides for ultra-cold atoms. In the experimental conditions, where both waveguides have wide and deep potentials, atoms are unable to split from a single lattice. Instead, several spatially separated regions of the optical lattice are required, fulfilling the Bragg condition. This thesis will present clear evidence of the detection of discrete quantised momentum states of the atoms, created from a process of ultra-cold atoms undergoing interference in the single arms of a Michelson interferometer. A detailed investigation of the different regimes of the splitter has been completed by varying the initial atom velocity and the amplitude of the optical lattice. The findings from the study have produced optimal parameters where the splitting ratio of the atoms between the two waveguides can be finely controlled by the amplitude of the lattice within certain limits. A Michelson interferometer configuration is used to test the coherence of the atoms by decelerating them after splitting in the lattice. The return velocity of atoms is set to be equal to the initial velocity and the two clouds are recombined using the original lattice. A sinusoidal oscillation of the atomic momentum between the two output ports of the beam splitter is visible. However, only interference in single Michelson interferometer arms has been observed. The reasons are discussed in detail along with plans to move towards an all-optical design.

David E. Pritchard