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Optical Manipulation and Structured Materials Conference (OMC)

A general method for evaluation of effective Raman wavefront and phase shift in atom interferometry

Yukun Luo, Jie You, Yingying Li, Qingqing Hu, Mingxiang Ma, Jie Wang, Fufang Xu

Published Jun 15, 2020• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Atom interferometry is an advanced optical manipulation tool of atoms in precision measurement field. Wavefront aberrations of the Raman beam have become one of the major obstacles impeding the improvement of measurement accuracy. Beforehand measurement of laser wavefront is impractical due to the further wavefront deterioration during optical mounting. In this work, we present a general method for evaluating the effective Raman wavefront that atoms experience and the corresponding phase shift of interferometric fringes. The method extracts the effective Zernike polynomial terms and reconstructs the wavefront using optimal estimation theory. The evaluation accuracy and convergence speed are discussed by simulation. The results predict the method adaptability and provide strong support on analytical and numerical reference for wavefront error compensation.

DOI
10.1117/12.2573801

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Atom interferometry is an advanced optical manipulation tool of atoms in precision measurement field. Wavefront aberrations of the Raman beam have become one of the major obstacles impeding the improvement of measurement accuracy. Beforehand measurement of laser wavefront is impractical due to the further wavefront deterioration during optical mounting. In this work, we present a general method for evaluating the effective Raman wavefront that atoms experience and the corresponding phase shift of interferometric fringes. The method extracts the effective Zernike polynomial terms and reconstructs the wavefront using optimal estimation theory. The evaluation accuracy and convergence speed are discussed by simulation. The results predict the method adaptability and provide strong support on analytical and numerical reference for wavefront error compensation.
Wavefront aberrations have significant impacts on the accuracy and long-term stability of cold-atom interferometers. This research presents an in situ method for directly measuring the phase shift induced by the wavefront of the Raman beam using the atom interferometer itself. To validate the feasibility of this approach, experiments involving the insertion of a glass plate with a known surface figure into the Raman beam path have been carried out. The phase introduced by the glass plate is measured experimentally by the atom interferometer and calculated theoretically based on the wavefront obtained from the wavefront sensor, and we find good agreement of the experimental results with the theoretical calculations. The method not only allows for the assessment of systematic errors in an atom interferometer, but also provides the capability to retroactively compute the wavefront of Raman beams based on the measured phase shift. The wavefront distribution of the glass plate is inversed from the phase measured by the atom interferometer. This inversed wavefront distribution is consistent with the surface of the glass plate measured by the wavefront sensor, which confirms the effectiveness of the method. This work provides a valuable approach to evaluate the systematic errors in atom interferometers that are sensitive to wavefront aberrations. Furthermore, it offers a novel method to measure the wavefront using atoms.
Atomic gravimeter based on atom interferometry has become a hotspot of quantum optics applications in recent years and shown rapid progress in static-scene measurements. Improving the adaptability on dynamic scenes is an important development direction, which calls for in-depth research on various errors caused by carrier motions. This work focuses on the error evaluation and compensation of motion-induced misalignment between the Raman laser beam and the atomic trajectory. A theoretical analysis framework is formed to investigate the atom-laser misalignment errors by considering both the inhomogeneous Raman laser intensity and wavefront phase distributions in a dynamic perspective. The influence on fringe contrast and phase shift in an atom-interferometry gravimeter is discussed. Quantitative study has been done with different motion types, motion rates as well as random motion noises. The results show oscillational decay trends of fringe contrast with the motion amplitude and the increased significance of rotationally antisymmetric Zernike terms in dynamical Raman wavefront phase shift evaluation. Strong correlations can be found between the misalignment errors and the experimental parameters. A compensation method is proposed accordingly via quickly adjusting the Raman intensity or pulse duration and comprehensive Raman wavefront characterization. Both amplitude and phase corrections are achieved. The analytical approach and results provide a practical solution for further advances of atom-interferometry under harsh motional conditions.
Wavefront aberrations are one of the largest uncertainty factors in present atom interferometers. We present a detailed numerical and experimental analysis of this effect based on measured aberrations from optical windows. By placing windows into the Raman beam path of our atomic gravimeter, we verify for the first time the induced bias in very good agreement with theory. Our method can be used to reduce the uncertainty in atomic gravimeters by one order of magnitude resulting in an error of less than 3 × 10−10 g and it is suitable in a wide variety of atom interferometers with thermal or ultra cold atoms. We discuss the limitations of our method, potential improvements and its role in future generation experiments. 1
Gravity gradients represent a major obstacle in high-precision measurements by atom interferometry. Controlling their effects to the required stability and accuracy imposes very stringent requirements on the relative positioning of freely falling atomic clouds, as in the case of precise tests of Einstein's equivalence principle. We demonstrate a new method to exactly compensate the effects introduced by gravity gradients in a Raman-pulse atom interferometer. By shifting the frequency of the Raman lasers during the central π pulse, it is possible to cancel the initial position- and velocity-dependent phase shift produced by gravity gradients. We apply this technique to simultaneous interferometers positioned along the vertical direction and demonstrate a new method for measuring local gravity gradients that does not require precise knowledge of the relative position between the atomic clouds. Based on this method, we also propose an improved scheme to determine the Newtonian gravitational constant G towards the 10 ppm relative uncertainty.
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.