Bloch Oscillations of Ultracold Atoms: A Tool for a Metrological Determination of h/mRb

Rémy Battesti, Pierre Cladé, Saïda Guellati-Khélifa, Catherine Schwob, Benoît Grémaud, François Nez, Lucile Julien, and François Biraben
Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 253001 – Published 22 June 2004

Abstract

We use Bloch oscillations in a horizontal moving standing wave to transfer a large number of photon recoils to atoms with a high efficiency (99.5% per cycle). By measuring the photon recoil of Rb87, using velocity-selective Raman transitions to select a subrecoil velocity class and to measure the final accelerated velocity class, we have determined h/mRb with a relative precision of 0.4 ppm. To exploit the high momentum transfer efficiency of our method, we are developing a vertical standing wave setup. This will allow us to measure h/mRb better than 108 and hence the fine structure constant α with an uncertainty close to the most accurate value coming from the (g2) determination.

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  • Received 17 November 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.253001

©2004 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Rémy Battesti1, Pierre Cladé1, Saïda Guellati-Khélifa2, Catherine Schwob1, Benoît Grémaud1, François Nez1, Lucile Julien1, and François Biraben1

  • 1Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Ecole Normale Supérieure, CNRS-UMR 8552, UPMC, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
  • 2BNM-INM, Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, 292 rue Saint Martin, 75141 Paris Cedex 03, France

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Issue

Vol. 92, Iss. 25 — 25 June 2004

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