Cold atoms in a folded high finesse optical resonator

Andréa D Bertoldi

Simon Bernon, Thomas Vanderbruggen, Andréa D Bertoldi +4 more

Lucas Béguin, Mathieu Bertrand, Torben Pöpplau +1 more

Simon Bernon

This thesis investigates the generation of atomic spin-squeezed states by quantum non-demolition (QND) measurements in a high-finesse optical cavity. Cold atom interferometry has demonstrated state of the art performance for the measurement of tiny rotations, accelerations and time. The sensitivity of atom interferometers has already reached the atomic shot noise level, a limit that could be overcome by the use of non-classical atomic states. In this context, we developed a crossed high-finesse cavity resonating both at 1560 nm and 780 nm. Laser light at 1560 nm injected in the cavity generates a far off resonance optical dipole trap where Rb 87 cold atoms are loaded from a magneto-optical trap. The lifetime of the atoms in this dipole trap is limited by the residual background collisions, indicating that further evaporation process should be effective. The concepts of QND measurement are introduced and a wavefunction formalism that describes the spin-squeezing dynamics of the atomic state is discussed. This formalism is applied to practical measurement apparatus that are the Mach-Zehnder interferometer and the heterodyne detection. Experimentally, this non-destructive measurement was implemented at 780 nm in a frequency modulation scheme strongly immune to noise. The influence of this non-demolition probe on the atomic sample has been characterized in single pass and this tool has been applied to follow in real time the state of atomic interferometers. In addition to this work, a narrow linewidth Raman laser suitable for high precision spectroscopy was implemented with cold atoms as the gain medium.

J. C. de Aquino Carvalho, A. D. M. de Lima, J. W. R. Tabosa

We report on the observation of laser oscillation using the magnetically assisted gain in an ensemble of coherently prepared cold cesium atoms. This gain mechanism was recently demonstrated and is based on the modification of the Zeeman populations and coherences induced by a coupling and a probe beams by the presence of a transverse magnetic field. We have also investigated the enhancement of the gain due to the presence of a resonant ring cavity having different finesses. In the case of a low-finesse cavity operating below threshold, a 14-fold gain enhancement, in comparison with the single-pass gain, was measured and, finally, the system showed laser oscillation when a higher-finesse cavity was used. The present demonstration of laser oscillation constitutes an unconventional kind of lasing without inversion which is based on the manipulation of the dark state by an external magnetic field.

Jean-Michel Courty, Astrid Lambrecht, E. Giacobino