Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:quant-ph/0608214 · Physical Review A

Quantum sensitivity limit of a Sagnac hybrid interferometer based on slow-light propagation in ultracold gases

Frank Zimmer, Michael Fleischhauer

Published Dec 7, 2006• 7 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The light-matter-wave Sagnac interferometer based on ultraslow light proposed recently in Zimmer and Fleischhauer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 253201 (2004), is analyzed in detail. In particular the effect of confining potentials is examined and it is shown that the ultraslow light attains a rotational phase shift equivalent to that of a matter wave, if and only if the coherence transfer from light to atoms associated with slow light is associated with a momentum transfer and if an ultracold gas in a ring trap is used. The quantum sensitivity limit of the Sagnac interferometer is determined and the minimum detectable rotation rate calculated. It is shown that the slow-light interferometer allows for a significantly higher signal-to-noise ratio as possible in current matter-wave gyroscopes.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.74.063609

Related papers

Sagnac Interferometry Based on Ultraslow Polaritons in Cold Atomic Vapors

Frank Zimmer, Michael Fleischhauer

The advantages of light and matter-wave Sagnac interferometers--large area on one hand and high rotational sensitivity per unit area on the other--can be combined utilizing ultraslow light in cold atomic gases. While a group-velocity reduction alone does not affect the Sagnac phase shift, the associated momentum transfer from light to atoms generates a coherent matter-wave component which gives rise to a substantially enhanced rotational signal. It is shown that matter-wave sensitivity in a large-area interferometer can be achieved if an optically dense vapor at subrecoil temperatures is used. Already a noticeable enhancement of the Sagnac phase shift is possible, however, with far fewer cooling requirements.

arXiv:quant-ph/0312187•Physical Review Letters•Jun 21, 2004•52 citations

Slow wave atom interferometers for rotation sensing

Meriç Özcan

A gyroscope based on Sagnac interferometer measures the rotation rate relative to an inertial frame of reference. Sagnac effect originally has been derived and experimentally demonstrated with optical waves. Later, matter wave based Sagnac interferometers were developed due to inherent sensitivity over a photon based system. However in any interferometer whether it is photon or matter wave based the resultant phase shift due to counter-rotating waves is independent of the wave velocity. Here we show that one can have a larger phase shift with slower matter waves using Aharonov-Bohm effect: the phase difference of the counter propagating waves is proportional to the inverse square of the particle velocity.

Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Feb 8, 2007•0 citations

Sagnac effect in a chain of mesoscopic quantum rings

Christopher P. Search, John R. E. Toland, Marko Zivkovic

The ability to interferometrically detect inertial rotations via the Sagnac effect has been a strong stimulus for the development of atom interferometry because of the potential ${10}^{10}$ enhancement of the rotational phase shift in comparison to optical Sagnac gyroscopes. Here we analyze ballistic transport of matter waves in a one-dimensional chain of $N$ coherently coupled quantum rings in the presence of a rotation of angular frequency $\ensuremath{\Omega}$. We show that the transmission probability, $T$, exhibits zero transmission stop gaps as a function of the rotation rate interspersed with regions of rapidly oscillating finite transmission. With increasing $N$, the transition from zero transmission to the oscillatory regime becomes an increasingly sharp function of $\ensuremath{\Omega}$ with a slope $\ensuremath{\partial}T/\ensuremath{\partial}\ensuremath{\Omega}\ensuremath{\sim}{N}^{2}$. The steepness of this slope dramatically enhances the response to rotations in comparison to conventional single ring interferometers such as the Mach-Zehnder interferometer and leads to a phase sensitivity well below the quantum shot-noise limit typical of atom interferometers.

arXiv:0810.4111•Physical Review A•May 6, 2009•14 citations

Multi-pass guided atomic Sagnac interferometer for high-performance rotation sensing

S. Moukouri, Yonathan Japha, Mark Keil +4 more

Matter-wave interferometry with atoms propagating in a guiding potential is expected to provide compact, scalable and precise inertial sensing. However, a rotation sensing device based on the Sagnac effect with atoms guided in a ring has not yet been implemented despite continuous efforts during the last two decades. Here we discuss some intrinsic effects that limit the coherence in such a device and propose a scheme that overcomes these limitations and enables a multi-pass guiding Sagnac interferometer with a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) on a chip in a ring potential. We analyze crucial dephasing effects: potential roughness, phase diffusion due to atom-atom interactions and number uncertainty, and phase fluctuations. Owing to the recent progress in achieving high momentum beam splitting, creating smooth guides, and manipulating the matter-wavepacket propagation, guided interferometry can be implemented within the coherence time allowed by phase diffusion. Despite the lower particle flux in a guided Sagnac ring and the miniaturization of the interferometer, the estimated sensitivity, for reasonable and practical realizations of an atom chip-based gyroscope, is comparable to that of free-space interferometers, reaching 45 nrads^{-1}Hz^{-1/2}. A significant improvement over state-of-the-art free-space gyrocope sensitivities can be envisioned by using thermal atoms instead of a BEC, whereby the interferometer can be operated in a continuous fashion with the coherence limited by the scattering rate of the atoms with the background gas. Taking into account the sensitivity times length of the interferometer as the figure of merit which takes into account compactness, our configuration is expected to deliver a potential improvement of 2-4 orders of magnitude over state-of-the-art free-space gyroscopes for a BEC, and 4-6 orders of magnitude for thermal atoms.

arXiv:2107.03446•Jul 7, 2021•5 citations

Super-sensitive rotation measurement with an orbital angular momentum atom-light hybrid interferometer

Sheng Ming

Lights carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) have potential applications in precise rotation measurement, especially in remote sensing. Interferometers, especially nonlinear quantum interferometers, have also been proven to greatly improve the measurement accuracy in quantum metrology. By combining these two techniques, we theoretically propose a new atom-light hybrid Sagnac interferometer with OAM lights to advance the precision of the rotation measurement. A rotation sensitivity below standard quantum limit is achieved due to the enhancement of the quantum correlation of the interferometer even with 96% photon losses. This makes our protocol robustness to the photon loss. Furthermore, combining the slow light effect brings us at least four orders of magnitude of sensitivity better than the earth rotation rate. This new type interferometer has potential applications in high precision rotation sensing.

SPIE Conference on Quantum and Nonlinear Optics•Oct 8, 2021•0 citations

Super-sensitive rotation measurement with an orbital angular momentum atom-light hybrid interferometer

Jinxian Guo, Sheng Ming, Yuan Wu +2 more

Lights carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) have potential applications in precise rotation measurement, especially in remote sensing. Interferometers, especially nonlinear quantum interferometers, have also been proven to greatly improve the measurement accuracy in quantum metrology. By combining these two techniques, we theoretically propose a new atom-light hybrid Sagnac interferometer with OAM lights to advance the precision of the rotation measurement. A rotation sensitivity below standard quantum limit is achieved due to the enhancement of the quantum correlation of the interferometer even with 96% photon losses. This makes our protocol robustness to the photon loss. Furthermore, combining the slow light effect brings us at least four orders of magnitude of sensitivity better than the earth rotation rate. This new type interferometer has potential applications in high precision rotation sensing.

Optics Express•Nov 20, 2020•12 citations
The light-matter-wave Sagnac interferometer based on ultraslow light proposed recently in Zimmer and Fleischhauer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 253201 (2004), is analyzed in detail. In particular the effect of confining potentials is examined and it is shown that the ultraslow light attains a rotational phase shift equivalent to that of a matter wave, if and only if the coherence transfer from light to atoms associated with slow light is associated with a momentum transfer and if an ultracold gas in a ring trap is used. The quantum sensitivity limit of the Sagnac interferometer is determined and the minimum detectable rotation rate calculated. It is shown that the slow-light interferometer allows for a significantly higher signal-to-noise ratio as possible in current matter-wave gyroscopes.
The advantages of light and matter-wave Sagnac interferometers--large area on one hand and high rotational sensitivity per unit area on the other--can be combined utilizing ultraslow light in cold atomic gases. While a group-velocity reduction alone does not affect the Sagnac phase shift, the associated momentum transfer from light to atoms generates a coherent matter-wave component which gives rise to a substantially enhanced rotational signal. It is shown that matter-wave sensitivity in a large-area interferometer can be achieved if an optically dense vapor at subrecoil temperatures is used. Already a noticeable enhancement of the Sagnac phase shift is possible, however, with far fewer cooling requirements.
A gyroscope based on Sagnac interferometer measures the rotation rate relative to an inertial frame of reference. Sagnac effect originally has been derived and experimentally demonstrated with optical waves. Later, matter wave based Sagnac interferometers were developed due to inherent sensitivity over a photon based system. However in any interferometer whether it is photon or matter wave based the resultant phase shift due to counter-rotating waves is independent of the wave velocity. Here we show that one can have a larger phase shift with slower matter waves using Aharonov-Bohm effect: the phase difference of the counter propagating waves is proportional to the inverse square of the particle velocity.
The ability to interferometrically detect inertial rotations via the Sagnac effect has been a strong stimulus for the development of atom interferometry because of the potential 1010{10}^{10}1010 enhancement of the rotational phase shift in comparison to optical Sagnac gyroscopes. Here we analyze ballistic transport of matter waves in a one-dimensional chain of NNN coherently coupled quantum rings in the presence of a rotation of angular frequency $\ensuremath{\Omega}$. We show that the transmission probability, TTT, exhibits zero transmission stop gaps as a function of the rotation rate interspersed with regions of rapidly oscillating finite transmission. With increasing NNN, the transition from zero transmission to the oscillatory regime becomes an increasingly sharp function of $\ensuremath{\Omega}$ with a slope $\ensuremath{\partial}T/\ensuremath{\partial}\ensuremath{\Omega}\ensuremath{\sim}{N}^{2}$. The steepness of this slope dramatically enhances the response to rotations in comparison to conventional single ring interferometers such as the Mach-Zehnder interferometer and leads to a phase sensitivity well below the quantum shot-noise limit typical of atom interferometers.
Matter-wave interferometry with atoms propagating in a guiding potential is expected to provide compact, scalable and precise inertial sensing. However, a rotation sensing device based on the Sagnac effect with atoms guided in a ring has not yet been implemented despite continuous efforts during the last two decades. Here we discuss some intrinsic effects that limit the coherence in such a device and propose a scheme that overcomes these limitations and enables a multi-pass guiding Sagnac interferometer with a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) on a chip in a ring potential. We analyze crucial dephasing effects: potential roughness, phase diffusion due to atom-atom interactions and number uncertainty, and phase fluctuations. Owing to the recent progress in achieving high momentum beam splitting, creating smooth guides, and manipulating the matter-wavepacket propagation, guided interferometry can be implemented within the coherence time allowed by phase diffusion. Despite the lower particle flux in a guided Sagnac ring and the miniaturization of the interferometer, the estimated sensitivity, for reasonable and practical realizations of an atom chip-based gyroscope, is comparable to that of free-space interferometers, reaching 45 nrads^{-1}Hz^{-1/2}. A significant improvement over state-of-the-art free-space gyrocope sensitivities can be envisioned by using thermal atoms instead of a BEC, whereby the interferometer can be operated in a continuous fashion with the coherence limited by the scattering rate of the atoms with the background gas. Taking into account the sensitivity times length of the interferometer as the figure of merit which takes into account compactness, our configuration is expected to deliver a potential improvement of 2-4 orders of magnitude over state-of-the-art free-space gyroscopes for a BEC, and 4-6 orders of magnitude for thermal atoms.
Lights carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) have potential applications in precise rotation measurement, especially in remote sensing. Interferometers, especially nonlinear quantum interferometers, have also been proven to greatly improve the measurement accuracy in quantum metrology. By combining these two techniques, we theoretically propose a new atom-light hybrid Sagnac interferometer with OAM lights to advance the precision of the rotation measurement. A rotation sensitivity below standard quantum limit is achieved due to the enhancement of the quantum correlation of the interferometer even with 96% photon losses. This makes our protocol robustness to the photon loss. Furthermore, combining the slow light effect brings us at least four orders of magnitude of sensitivity better than the earth rotation rate. This new type interferometer has potential applications in high precision rotation sensing.
Lights carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) have potential applications in precise rotation measurement, especially in remote sensing. Interferometers, especially nonlinear quantum interferometers, have also been proven to greatly improve the measurement accuracy in quantum metrology. By combining these two techniques, we theoretically propose a new atom-light hybrid Sagnac interferometer with OAM lights to advance the precision of the rotation measurement. A rotation sensitivity below standard quantum limit is achieved due to the enhancement of the quantum correlation of the interferometer even with 96% photon losses. This makes our protocol robustness to the photon loss. Furthermore, combining the slow light effect brings us at least four orders of magnitude of sensitivity better than the earth rotation rate. This new type interferometer has potential applications in high precision rotation sensing.