A quantum sensor for atom-surface interactions below 10 $\mu$m

Abstract

We report about the realization of a quantum device for force sensing at micrometric scale. We trap an ultracold ${}^{88}$Sr atomic cloud with a 1-D optical lattice, then we place the atomic sample close to a test surface using the same optical lattice as an elevator. We demonstrate precise positioning of the sample at the $\mu$m scale. By observing the Bloch oscillations of atoms into the 1-D optical standing wave, we are able to measure the total force on the atoms along the lattice axis, with a spatial resolution of few microns. We also demonstrate a technique for transverse displacement of the atoms, allowing to perform measurements near either transparent or reflective test surfaces. In order to reduce the minimum distance from the surface, we compress the longitudinal size of the atomic sample by means of an optical tweezer. Such system is suited for studies of atom-surface interaction at short distance, such as measurement of Casimir force and search for possible non-Newtonian gravity effects.

References in corpus (26)

• Measurement of the Casimir force between parallel metallic surfaces
• Nonlinear Micromechanical Casimir Oscillator
• Sub-millimeter Tests of the Gravitational Inverse-square Law
• Measurement of the Temperature Dependence of the Casimir-Polder Force
• New Experimental Limits on Macroscopic Forces Below 100 Microns
• Improved tests of extra-dimensional physics and thermal quantum field theory from new Casimir force measurements
• Measurement of the Casimir-Polder force through center-of-mass oscillations of a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Long-lived Bloch oscillations with bosonic Sr atoms and application to gravity measurement at micrometer scale
• Control of Interaction-Induced Dephasing of Bloch Oscillations
• New Experimental Constraints on Non-Newtonian Forces below 100 microns
• Atom interferometry with trapped Fermi gases
• New asymptotic behaviour of the surface-atom force out of thermal equilibrium
• Atom interferometry with a weakly-interacting Bose Einstein condensate
• Constraints on Yukawa-Type Deviations from Newtonian Gravity at 20 Microns
• Probing Sub-Micron Forces by Interferometry of Bose-Einstein Condensed Atoms
• A high frequency optical trap for atoms using Hermite-Gaussian beams
• Coherent Delocalization of Atomic Wave Packets in Driven Lattice Potentials
• Sensitive measurement of forces at micron scale using Bloch oscillations of ultracold atoms
• An optical conveyor belt for single neutral atoms
• Long Distance Transport of Ultracold Atoms using a 1D optical lattice
• Narrow Line Cooling: Finite Photon Recoil Dynamics
• Thermal spin flips in atom chips
• A New Apparatus for Detecting Micron-Scale Deviations from Newtonian Gravity
• Cooling and trapping of ultra-cold strontium isotopic mixtures
• Laser cooling and trapping of atomic strontium for ultracold atom physics, high-precision spectroscopy and quantum sensors
• Cooling of Sr to high phase-space density by laser and sympathetic cooling in isotopic mixtures

Cited by in corpus (42)

• Search for New Physics with Atoms and Molecules
• Precision Measurement of the Newtonian Gravitational Constant Using Cold Atoms
• Colloquium: Physics of optical lattice clocks
• Sensitivity limits of a Raman atom interferometer as a gravity gradiometer
• Precision measurement of gravity with cold atoms in an optical lattice and comparison with a classical gravimeter
• Scattering-matrix approach to Casimir-Lifshitz force and heat transfer out of thermal equilibrium between arbitrary bodies
• Fifteen Years of Cold Matter on the Atom Chip: Promise, Realizations, and Prospects
• Testing gravity with cold atom interferometry: Results and prospects
• Precision Gravity Tests and the Einstein Equivalence Principle
• Single-laser, one beam, tetrahedral magneto-optical trap
• T^3-Stern-Gerlach Matter-Wave Interferometer
• Advance and prospects in constraining the Yukawa-type corrections to Newtonian gravity from the Casimir effect
• Measuring Energy Differences by BEC Interferometry on a Chip
• Measuring gravity by holding atoms
• Delocalization-enhanced Bloch oscillations and driven resonant tunneling in optical lattices for precision force measurements
• Coherent transport of atomic wave packets in amplitude-modulated vertical optical lattices
• Atom-surface physics: A review
• Mapping out atom-wall interaction with atomic clocks
• Fluctuation-induced forces between atoms and surfaces: the Casimir-Polder interaction
• A trapped ultracold atom force sensor with a $\mu$m-scale spatial resolution
• Spectroscopic signatures of quantum friction
• A versatile, high-power 460nm laser system for Rydberg excitation of ultracold potassium
• Matter wave soliton bouncer
• Magnetic transport apparatus for the production of ultracold atomic gases in the vicinity of a dielectric surface
• A 3-photon process for producing a degenerate gas of metastable alkaline-earth atoms
• Rabi Interferometry and Sensitive Measurement of the Casimir-Polder Force with Ultra-Cold Gases
• Atomic states in optical traps near a planar surface
• Enhancing fiber atom interferometer by in-fiber laser cooling
• Revealing short-range non-Newtonian gravity through Casimir-Polder shielding
• Guided transport of ultracold gases of rubidium up to a room-temperature dielectric surface
• Long distance optical conveyor-belt transport of ultracold ${}^{133}$Cs and ${}^{87}$Rb atoms
• Enhanced Magnetic Trap Loading for Atomic Strontium
• Dynamical aspects of atom interferometry in an optical lattice in proximity of a surface
• Programmable System on Chip for controlling an atomic physics experiment
• Designing Zeeman slower for strontium atoms - towards optical atomic clock
• Surface-modified Wannier-Stark states in a 1D optical lattice
• Nonlinear Schrodinger equations with a multiple-well potential and a Stark-type perturbation
• Aspects of Superfluid Cold Atomic Gases in Optical Lattices
• Generalized Bloch oscillations of ultracold lattice atoms subject to higher-order gradients
• Long-range temperature-controlled transport of ultra-cold atoms with an accelerated lattice
• On the coherent effect of vacuum fluctuations on driven atoms
• Study of surface potentials using resonant tunneling of cold atoms in optical lattices