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Excited-band Bloch oscillations for precision atom interferometry

Katherine E. McAlpine, Daniel Gochnauer, and Subhadeep Gupta
Phys. Rev. A 101, 023614 – Published 20 February 2020
Physics logo See Synopsis: A More Precise Atom Interferometer

Abstract

We propose and demonstrate a method to increase the momentum separation between the arms of an atom interferometer and thus its area and measurement precision, by using Bloch oscillations (BOs) in an excited band of a pulsed optical standing-wave lattice. Using excited bands allows us to operate at particular “magic” depths, where high momentum-transfer efficiency (>99.4% per k, where k is the photon momentum) is maintained while minimizing the lattice-induced phase fluctuations (<1mrad per k) that are unavoidable in ground-band BOs. We apply this method to demonstrate interferometry with up to 40k momenta supplied by BOs. We discuss extensions of this technique to larger momentum transfer and adaptations towards metrological applications of atom interferometry such as a measurement of the fine-structure constant.

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  • Received 18 December 2019
  • Accepted 28 January 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.101.023614

©2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & Optical

Synopsis

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A More Precise Atom Interferometer

Published 12 March 2020

A method that increases the precision of atom interferometers could lead to improved force and energy measurements for testing physics beyond the standard model.

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Authors & Affiliations

Katherine E. McAlpine, Daniel Gochnauer, and Subhadeep Gupta

  • Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA

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Issue

Vol. 101, Iss. 2 — February 2020

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