Advanced ultracold sources for atomic physics and atom interferometry

Aashish Kafle, Sheng‐wey Chiow, Nan Yu

Dorothee Tell, H. Albers, Étienne Wodey +6 more

Romain Calviac, Antoine Rouxel, Samuel Charlot +6 more

The sensitivity of ultracold-atom sensors has great potential for on-board applications, but achieving this precision outside the laboratory requires a robust, compact atom source. This work presents a hybrid atom chip that combines two techniques to simplify the cold-atom source: optical gratings for single-beam laser cooling and conductive microcircuits for tight magnetic confinement. This hybrid configuration also achieves Bose-Einstein condensation. This research paves the way for integrating more advanced features into atomic chips with applications in atomic interferometry and atomtronics.

Guglielmo Maria Tino, Mark A. Kasevich

Since atom interferometers were first realized about 20 years ago, atom interferometry has had many applications in basic and applied science, and has been used to measure gravity acceleration, rotations and fundamental physical quantities with unprecedented precision. Future applications range from tests of general relativity to the development of next-generation inertial navigation systems. This book presents the lectures and notes from the Enrico Fermi school Atom Interferometry, held in Varenna, Italy, in July 2013. The aim of the school was to cover basic experimental and theoretical aspects and to provide an updated review of current activities in the field as well as main achievements, open issues and future prospects. Topics covered include theoretical background and experimental schemes for atom interferometry; ultracold atoms and atom optics; comparison of atom, light, electron and neutron interferometers and their applications; high precision measurements with atom interferometry and their application to tests of fundamental physics, gravitation, inertial measurements and geophysics; measurement of fundamental constants; interferometry with quantum degenerate gases; matter wave interferometry beyond classical limits; large area interferometers; atom interferometry on chips; and interferometry with molecules. The book will be a valuable source of reference for students, newcomers and experts in the field of atom interferometry.

Dan Stamper-Kurn, Joseph H. Thywissen

Romain Karcher, Almazbek Imanaliev, Sébastien Merlet +1 more

Summary form only given. Atom interferometry based on cold atoms and light beamsplitters is a mature technique, which allows for the realization of highly sensitive inertial sensors. In the most advanced inertial sensors based on atom interferometry, atomic wavepackets are manipulated by light beamsplitters using two-photon Raman transitions. The interferometer phase shift, which depends on the acceleration and the rotation of the experimental setup with respect to the inertial reference frame defined by the atoms in free fall, is derived from the relative displacement of the atoms with respect to the beamsplitter laser's equiphases. Wavefront aberrations thus induce parasitic phase shifts, which bias the measurement, and which are linked to the residual ballistic motion of the atoms across the laser beam profile during their free fall and cancels out at zero atomic temperature. The wavefront distortions of the lasers beamsplitters is an important limit in the accuracy of atom interferometers and in particular, the dominating contribution in best cold atom gravimeters (CAG) uncertainty budget. This work clears the way towards unprecedented accuracies for absolute gravimetry, below the 1 μGal level. The method proposed can be applied to any atomic sensor based on light beamsplitters, which are inevitably affected by distortions of the lasers wavefronts. The improved control of systematics it provides will have significant impact in high precision measurements with atom interferometry, with important applications to geodesy, fundamental physics tests and to the development of highest grade inertial sensors.