Mapping out atom-wall interaction with atomic clocks

Abstract

We explore a feasibility of measuring atom-wall interaction using atomic clocks based on atoms trapped in engineered optical lattices. Optical lattice is normal to the wall. By monitoring the wall-induced clock shift at individual wells of the lattice, one would measure a dependence of the atom-wall interaction on the atom-wall separation. We rigorously evaluate the relevant clock shifts and show that the proposed scheme may uniquely probe the long-range atom-wall interaction in all three qualitatively-distinct regimes of the interaction: van der Waals (image-charge interaction), Casimir-Polder (QED vacuum fluctuations) and Lifshitz (thermal bath fluctuations). The analysis is carried out for atoms Mg, Ca, Sr, Cd, Zn, and Hg, with a particular emphasis on Sr clock.

4 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (18)

• Colloquium: Physics of optical lattice clocks
• Dynamic polarizabilities and related properties of clock states of ytterbium atom
• Lamb-Dicke spectroscopy of atoms in a hollow-core photonic crystal fibre
• Towards a Mg lattice clock: Observation of the ${}^1{S}_0-$${}^3{P}_0$ transition and determination of the magic wavelength
• Direct tunneling delay time measurement in an optical lattice
• Atom-surface physics: A review
• Fluctuation-induced forces between atoms and surfaces: the Casimir-Polder interaction
• Raman laser spectroscopy of Wannier Stark states
• Entangling the lattice clock: Towards Heisenberg-limited timekeeping
• Atomic states in optical traps near a planar surface
• Temperature-dependent Casimir-Polder forces on polarizable molecules
• Non-additive dynamical Casimir atomic phases
• Dynamical aspects of atom interferometry in an optical lattice in proximity of a surface
• Possibility of "magic" co-trapping of two atomic species in optical lattices
• Empirically constructed dynamic electric dipole polarizability function of magnesium and its applications
• Feasibility of the optical fiber clock
• Study of surface potentials using resonant tunneling of cold atoms in optical lattices
• Interplay of curvature and temperature in the Casimir-Polder interaction