Quantum-enhanced Atom Interferometry

Mark Edwards, Brandon Benton, Michael Krygier +1 more

Robin Corgier, Naceur Gaaloul, Augusto Smerzi +2 more

Tim Kovachy

Robin Corgier, Marco Malitesta, Augusto Smerzi +3 more

Simon A. Haine

We propose a scheme to significantly enhance the sensitivity of atom interferometry performed with Bose-Einstein condensates. When an optical two-photon Raman transition is used to split the condensate into two modes, some information about the number of atoms in one of the modes is contained in one of the optical modes. We introduce a simple model to describe this process, and find that by processing this information in an appropriate way, the phase sensitivity of atom interferometry can be enhanced by more than a factor of 10 for realistic parameters.

Michail Kritsotakis, Jacob Dunningham, Simon A. Haine

We theoretically investigate the use of quantum nondemolition measurement to enhance the sensitivity of atom interferometry with Bose-condensed atoms. In particular, we are concerned with enhancing existing high-precision atom interferometry apparatuses, and so restrict ourselves to dilute atomic samples and the use of free-propagating light or optical cavities in the weak-coupling regime. We find the optimum parameter regime that balances between spin squeezing and atomic loss and find that significant improvements in sensitivity are possible. Finally, we consider the use of squeezed light and show that this can provide further boosts to sensitivity.