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Light-pulse atom interferometric device

Grant W. Biedermann

Published Jan 23, 2023• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

An atomic interferometric device useful, e.g., for measuring acceleration or rotation is provided. The device comprises at least one vapor cell containing a Raman-active chemical species, an optical system, and at least one detector. The optical system is conformed to implement a Raman pulse interferometer in which Raman transitions are stimulated in a warm vapor of the Raman-active chemical species. The detector is conformed to detect changes in the populations of different internal states of atoms that have been irradiated by the optical system.

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An atomic interferometric device useful, e.g., for measuring acceleration or rotation is provided. The device comprises at least one vapor cell containing a Raman-active chemical species, an optical system, and at least one detector. The optical system is conformed to implement a Raman pulse interferometer in which Raman transitions are stimulated in a warm vapor of the Raman-active chemical species. The detector is conformed to detect changes in the populations of different internal states of atoms that have been irradiated by the optical system.
A light-pulse atomic interferometry (LPAI) apparatus is provided. The LPAI apparatus comprises a vessel, two sets of magnetic coils configured to magnetically confine an atomic vapor in two respective magneto-optical traps (MOTs) within the vessel when activated, and an optical system configured to irradiate the atomic vapor within the vessel with laser radiation that, when suitably tuned, can launch atoms previously confined in each of the MOTs toward the other MOT. In embodiments, the magnetic coils are configured to produce a magnetic field that is non-zero at the midpoint between the traps. In embodiments, the time-of-flight of the launched atoms from one MOT to the other is 12 ms or less. In embodiments, the MOTs are situated approximately 36 mm apart. In embodiments, the apparatus is configured to activate the magnetic coils according to a particular temporal magnetic field gradient profile.
An atomic magnetometer, and a method for using same is disclosed. The method for measuring an ambient magnetic field uses an atomic magnetometer that has a probe light beam with a probe axis that probes a polarization vector of an atomic population confined within a vapor cell. The method employs one or more measurement cycles. In each measurement cycle, the polarization vector is prepared in an initial state via an optical pumping pulse. The vapor cell is then subjected to the ambient magnetic field, which results in rotation of the polarization vector by Larmor precession. Within the measurement cycle, at a point in time after the polarization vector has been prepared in the initial state, the ambient magnetic field rotates the direction of the polarization vector, and at least one measurement is made of a projection of the Larmor-rotated polarization vector onto the probe axis during or after application of a magnetic waveform.
The laser cooling of atoms to ultracold temperatures has propelled many groundbreaking advances in fundamental research and precision measurement, through such applications as quantum simulators and interferometric sensors. Laser cooling remains, however, highly species-selective, and techniques for its application to molecules are still in their infancy. This thesis broadly concerns the development of laser cooling schemes, based on sequences of coherent optical pulses, which can in principle be applied to a wide range of species. We describe a cooling scheme, in which a velocity-selective impulse analogous to that in Doppler cooling is generated by a light-pulse Ramsey interferometer, and present a proof-of-concept demonstration of the scheme using ultracold rubidium-85 atoms as a test-bed. We realise an interferometer for the atoms, as they are in free-fall after release from a magneto-optical trap, by inducing stimulated Raman transitions between their ground hyperfine states. We provide a comprehensive characterisation of these Raman light-pulse interferometer optics, where particular attention is paid to light shift effects. Raman pulses, and indeed coherent operations in any quantum control system, unavoidably suffer from systematic errors in the control field intensity and frequency, and these lead to reductions in pulse fidelity and readout contrast. In parallel to the work on interferometric cooling in this thesis, we report our preliminary investigations into composite pulses, whereby 'naive' single pulses are replaced by sequences of rotations with tailored durations and phases, for improving pulse fidelity in the presence of inhomogeneities. We find that composite pulses can indeed be highly effective in our cold atom system, and propose that their application in such devices as interferometric sensors is a promising prospect.
The use of cold atoms in any sensor operating in a dynamic environment requires that the measurement cycle be conducted before the atom cloud escapes the interaction region. Under multiple-g accelerations it is desirable to complete measurements in millisecond time scales, particularly when laser beams are used to interrogate the atoms. In this paper, we demonstrate high-contrast atom interferometry in a vapor cell using stimulated Raman transitions at millisecond interrogation times. Laser-cooled cesium atoms are interrogated with a sequence of three Raman pulses and the interferometer phase is read out in the same region in which the atoms are trapped. Our system achieved over 70% contrast with a Doppler insensitive interferometer and over 30% contrast with a Doppler sensitive interferometer, in an environment normally considered adverse to high-contrast atom interferometry (e.g., no retroreflector stabilization and no magnetic shielding). Demonstration of an inertially sensitive atom interferometer in this environment supports the feasibility of a high-bandwidth inertial sensor using light pulse atom interferometry. Finally, we show that Raman pulse population transfer efficiency in our system is primarily limited by nonuniformity of the Raman laser intensity across the atom cloud.
A method for preparing an entangled quantum state of an atomic ensemble is provided. The method includes loading each atom of the atomic ensemble into a respective optical trap; placing each atom of the atomic ensemble into a same first atomic quantum state by impingement of pump radiation; approaching the atoms of the atomic ensemble to within a dipole-dipole interaction length of each other; Rydberg-dressing the atomic ensemble; during the Rydberg-dressing operation, exciting the atomic ensemble with a Raman pulse tuned to stimulate a ground-state hyperfine transition from the first atomic quantum state to a second atomic quantum state; and separating the atoms of the atomic ensemble by more than a dipole-dipole interaction length.