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Optical and Quantum Sensing and Precision Metrology

Probing gravity with trapped atoms: the optical lattice atom interferometer

Cristian Daniel Panda

Published Mar 4, 2021• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Atom interferometers are quantum mechanical devices sensitive to gravitational and inertial forces, with applications in fundamental physics and inertial sensing in the field. Their performance is currently limited by the interrogation time available to freely falling atoms in Earth’s gravitational field, as well as noise due to mechanical and acoustic vibrations. Our experiment probes gravitational potentials by holding, rather than dropping, atoms. We realize an interrogation time of 20 seconds by suspending the spatially separated atomic wave packets in an optical lattice. This record coherence is enabled by the smooth lattice wave fronts, which are mode-filtered by an optical cavity. This trapped geometry suppresses phase variance due to vibrations by three to four orders of magnitude, overcoming the dominant noise source in atom-interferometric gravimeters. The later part of the talk describes recent progress in characterizing and reducing dephasing of the interferometer. An upgraded optical lattice interferometer experiment is currently being commissioned, with the goal of increased sensitivity to gravity.

DOI
10.1117/12.2586704

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Atom interferometers are quantum mechanical devices sensitive to gravitational and inertial forces, with applications in fundamental physics and inertial sensing in the field. Their performance is currently limited by the interrogation time available to freely falling atoms in Earth’s gravitational field, as well as noise due to mechanical and acoustic vibrations. Our experiment probes gravitational potentials by holding, rather than dropping, atoms. We realize an interrogation time of 20 seconds by suspending the spatially separated atomic wave packets in an optical lattice. This record coherence is enabled by the smooth lattice wave fronts, which are mode-filtered by an optical cavity. This trapped geometry suppresses phase variance due to vibrations by three to four orders of magnitude, overcoming the dominant noise source in atom-interferometric gravimeters. The later part of the talk describes recent progress in characterizing and reducing dephasing of the interferometer. An upgraded optical lattice interferometer experiment is currently being commissioned, with the goal of increased sensitivity to gravity.
Atom interferometers are powerful tools for both measurements in fundamental physics and inertial sensing applications. Their performance, however, has been limited by the available interrogation time of freely falling atoms in a gravitational field. By suspending the spatially separated atomic wave packets in a lattice formed by the mode of an optical cavity, we realize an interrogation time of 20 seconds. Our approach allows gravitational potentials to be measured by holding, rather than dropping, atoms. After seconds of hold time, gravitational potential energy differences from as little as micrometers of vertical separation generate megaradians of interferometer phase. This trapped geometry suppresses the phase variance due to vibrations by three to four orders of magnitude, overcoming the dominant noise source in atom-interferometric gravimeters.
Atom interferometry has proven both a powerful means for probing fundamental physics, and a promising technology for high-precision inertial sensing. However, their performance has been limited by the available interrogation time of atoms falling freely in Earth's gravitational field. Trapped geometries have thus been explored as a means to improve the sensitivity of atom interferometers, but attempts to date have suffered from decoherence caused by trap inhomogeneities. We have demonstrated a trapped atom interferometer with an unprecedented interrogation time of 20 seconds,1 achieved by trapping the interferometer in the resonant mode of an optical cavity. The cavity is instrumental to this advance, as it provides spatial mode filtering for the trapping potential. Because the interferometer is held with the arms vertically separated along the gravitational axis, a phase shift accumulates due to the gravitational potential energy difference between the arms. Moreover, this phase accumulates continuously during the hold time, providing an orders-of-magnitude greater immunity to vibrations than previous atom-interferometric gravimeters at the same sensitivity.
Cold atom free-fall interferometers now realize state-of-the-art precision inertial sensors, opening perspectives towards embedded devices for applications and fundamental physics tests on earth and in space. The acceleration of gravity can be measured in a stimulated Raman transition interferometer where the acceleration under gravity of a cloud of freely falling atoms is sensed by three Raman pulses allowing to split, reflect and interfere atomic wave packets [1]. The gravimeter developped at SYRTE allows to measure the acceleration of gravity at state-of-the-art performances compared to the best classical absolute gravimeters, with a sensitivity of 2×10−8g over 1s and an exactitude of 5×10−9 g [2]. This exactitude is currently limited by wavefront aberrations of the lasers, sampled by residual transverse trajectories of the molasse-cooled cloud over the free fall. Unbalanced transverse trajectories will also bias the measurement due to Coriolis effect [3]. We will investigate the use of a colder atom source to reduce these systematic effects, by implementing Bose-Einstein condensation of the initial cloud, allowing both better position control and better focusing of our source.
Metrology Exploiting the wave nature of atoms in an interferometer setup can be used to provide a precise measure of gravity. The precision is limited to the time scale of the interferometric measurement, which in turn is limited to the distance that the atoms drop, typically just over a couple of seconds for a 10-meter drop tower. Xu et al. describe a trapped atom interferometer in which the interrogation time of the interferometric measurements can be extended to 20 seconds. The new interferometer design and subsequent improved precision can be used to make fundamental tests of general relativity as well as precision measurements of other potentials. Science , this issue p. [745][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aay6428
Quantum sensing using atom interferometry possesses immense potential for application in gravimetry, inertial navigation and for gravitational wave detection, apart from carrying out tests of fundamental physics. Atom interferometry can be used to perform absolute inertial measurements with unprecedented long term stability, unlike classical sensors which are prone to drift and incur calibration errors. However, atom interferometers seldom achieve their fundamental sensitivity due to the coupling of ambient vibrations. It is the dominant noise source that not only impairs performance but also affects its operability. Ideal compensation of the effects due to vibration noise using a versatile accelerometer, while concurrently enabling miniaturized atom interferometer setups has not been pioneered. Such a compact hybrid quantum sensor will enable reliable operation with an enhanced performance in field applications, paving the way for robust atom interferometry beyond laboratory conditions. A novel optomechanical resonator has been designed, developed and successfully hybridized with an atom interferometer to suppress the effects of vibration noise, and the results are presented in this thesis. The optomechanical resonator’s inertial test mass is simultaneously used to create a continuous intracavity optical lattice to sense its displacement, and a pulsed optical lattice to manipulate the atoms. For the first time, a broadband accelerometer is seamlessly hybridized with an atom interferometer via mechanical resonator mediated coupling of the optical lattices to measure acceleration. This enables elimination of vibration induced measurement ambiguity in our atom interferometer with a well defined mechanical transfer function. Vibration noise correlation is demonstrated up to our prototype atom interferometer’s most sensitive operating mode of T = 6 ms using double Bragg diffraction, ultimately limited by its technical noise. The optomechanical resonator measures acceleration with a sensitivity down to 1.1×10−6 ms−2/ √Hz corresponding to a displacement sensitivity of 8.6 × 10−15 m/ √Hz. Substantial 1/f noise suppression due to the developed optical readout scheme enables a measurement bandwidth spanning from sub-hertz frequencies up to several kilohertz. Multiple versions of the optomechanical resonator with different characteristics were developed and hybridized with our atom interferometer. This paves the way for developing tailored optomechanical resonators for specific inertial sensing applications.