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At least 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

Full quantum mechanical analysis of atomic three-grating Mach–Zehnder interferometry

Atomic three-grating Mach–Zehnder interferometry constitutes an important tool to probe fundamental aspects of the quantum theory. There is, however, a remarkable gap in the literature between the oversimplified models and robust numerical simulations considered to describe the corresponding experiments. Consequently, the former usually lead to paradoxical scenarios, such as the wave–particle dual behavior of atoms, while the latter make difficult the data analysis in simple terms. Here these issues are tackled by means of a simple grating working model consisting of evenly-spaced Gaussian slits. As is shown, this model suffices to explore and explain such experiments both analytically and numerically, giving a good account of the full atomic journey inside the interferometer, and hence contributing to make less mystic the physics involved. More specifically, it provides a clear and unambiguous picture of the wavefront splitting that takes place inside the interferometer, illustrating how the momentum along each emerging diffraction order is well defined even though the wave function itself still displays a rather complex shape. To this end, the local transverse momentum is also introduced in this context as a reliable analytical tool. The splitting, apart from being a key issue to understand atomic Mach–Zehnder interferometry, also demonstrates at a fundamental level how wave and particle aspects are always present in the experiment, without incurring in any contradiction or interpretive paradox. On the other hand, at a practical level, the generality and versatility of the model and methodology presented, makes them suitable to attack analogous problems in a simple manner after a convenient tuning. - Highlights: • A simple model is proposed to analyze experiments based on atomic Mach–Zehnder interferometry. • The model can be easily handled both analytically and computationally. • A theoretical analysis based on the combination of the position and momentum representations is considered. • Wave and particle aspects are shown to coexist within the same experiment, thus removing the old wave-corpuscle dichotomy. • A good agreement between numerical simulations and experimental data is found without appealing to best-fit procedures.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

Robust Optimized Pulse Schemes for Atomic Fountain Interferometry

The robustness of an atomic fountain interferometer with respect to variations in the initial velocity of the atoms and deviations from the optimal pulse amplitude is examined. We numerically simulate the dynamics of an interferometer in momentum space with a maximum separation of and map out the expected signal contrast depending on the variance of the initial velocity distribution and the value of the laser field amplitude. We show that an excitation scheme based on rapid adiabatic passage significantly enhances the expected signal contrast, compared to the commonly used scheme consisting of a series of and pulses. We demonstrate further substantial increase of the robustness by using optimal control theory to identify splitting and swapping pulses that perform well on an ensemble average of pulse amplitudes and velocities. Our results demonstrate the ability of optimal control to significantly enhance future implementations of atomic fountain interferometry.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Optical nanofiber testbeds for benchmarking membrane-waveguide photonic integrated circuit platforms toward on-chip quantum inertial sensing

Recent advances in cold atom interferometry with optical and magnetic atom guides have set the stage for quantum inertial sensors capable of operating in dynamic environments. In this work, we present three key innovations—evanescent-field (EF) atom guides, optical nanofiber testbeds, and membrane-waveguide photonic integrated circuit (PIC) platforms—to advance EF-guided atom interferometry. First, we demonstrate EF atom guides on optical nanofiber testbeds, which serve as performance benchmarks for our membrane-waveguide PIC platforms. Second, we achieve low-power (⁠ ~ 5 mW) guiding of freely moving, laser-cooled 133 Cs atoms in two-color, traveling-wave EF optical dipole traps at the novel, heat-efficient magic wavelengths of 793 and 937 nm (i.e., “793/937-nm EF atom guides”). Concurrently, we design and fabricate membrane-waveguide PIC platforms for these EF atom guides; in our prior work, we showed that these structures safely accommodate 4–6 times the required optical trap power under vacuum and enable dense cold atom generation via magneto-optical trapping in the vicinity of the optical wavguide for efficient loading. Third, we verify preserved atomic coherence via microwave fields and EF-coupled Doppler-free Raman beams; to our knowledge, this is the first report of coherence fringes driven by co-propagating EF-coupled Raman beams with only 150 nW of total optical power. By providing a direct comparison between optical nanofiber testbeds and membrane-waveguide PIC platforms, our results lay critical groundwork for the on-chip realization of EF-guided atom interferometry and the development of fully integrated, compact, lightweight, and low-power quantum accelerometers and gyroscopes.

Orozco, Adrian [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-↗
DOE OSTI2014

The application of Raman laser in gravity measurement and metrology

Atom Interferometry is proved to be a potential method for measuring the acceleration of atoms due to Gravity, we are now building a feasible system of cold atom gravimeter, it is based on the atom interferometry technology by coherently manipulating the cold atoms in a fountain (with a height of 1m) with specific Raman lasers, the cold atom wave packet is splitted, combined, and then re-splitted in the process. Then the atomic wave packet will acquire different phase because of the different evolution path. The precise acceleration can be deduced through the precision measurement of atomic interference fringes phase, and this will be a high precision standard of acceleration. At present, the preparation of Raman laser and the precise control of the laser Frequency have been finished, and they have been proved to meet the requirements of the experiment.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2026

Cumulative fidelity of large-momentum-transfer clock atom interferometers in the presence of laser noise

Clock atom interferometry is an emerging technique in precision measurements that is particularly well suited for sensitivity enhancement through large momentum transfer (LMT). While current systems have demonstrated momentum separations of several hundreds of photon momenta, next-generation quantum sensors are targeting an LMT enhancement factor beyond 10 4 . However, the viability of LMT clock interferometers has recently come into question due to the potential impact of laser frequency noise. Here, in this work, we resolve this concern by analyzing the cumulative fidelity of sequential state inversions in an LMT atom interferometer. We show that the population error from 𝑛 pulses applied from alternating directions scales linearly with 𝑛. This is a significant advantage over the 𝑛 2 scaling that occurs when probing a two-level system 𝑛 times from the same direction. We further show that contributions to the interferometer signal from parasitic paths generated by imperfect pulses are negligible, for any loss mechanism. These results establish that laser frequency noise is not a practical limitation for the development of high-fidelity LMT clock atom interferometers.

Mach-Zehnder atom interferometry↗