Atom interferometric techniques for measuring uniform magnetic field gradients and gravitational acceleration

Abstract

We discuss techniques for probing the effects of a constant force acting on cold atoms using two configurations of a grating echo-type atom interferometer. Laser-cooled samples of ${}^{85}$Rb with temperatures as low as 2.4 $\mu$K have been achieved in a new experimental apparatus with a well-controlled magnetic environment. We demonstrate interferometer signal lifetimes approaching the transit time limit in this system ($\sim 270$ ms), which is comparable to the timescale achieved by Raman interferometers. Using these long timescales, we experimentally investigate the influence of a homogeneous magnetic field gradient using two- and three-pulse interferometers, which enable us to sense changes in externally applied magnetic field gradients as small as $\sim 4\times 10^{-5}$ G/cm. We also provide an improved theoretical description of signals generated by both interferometer configurations that accurately models experimental results. With this theory, absolute measurements of $B$-gradients at the level of $3\times 10^{-4}$ G/cm are achieved. Finally, we contrast the suitability of the two- and three-pulse interferometers for precision measurements of the gravitational acceleration, $g$.

18 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review A

References in corpus (5)

• Limits to the sensitivity of a low noise compact atomic gravimeter
• Precision measurement of gravity with cold atoms in an optical lattice and comparison with a classical gravimeter
• Photonic Band Gaps in One-Dimensionally Ordered Cold Atomic Vapors
• A scalable Bose-Einstein condensate Sagnac interferometer in a linear trap
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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Two-dimensional grating magneto-optical trap
• Prospects for Precise Measurements with Echo Atom Interferometry
• Measuring the atomic recoil frequency using a perturbative grating-echo atom interferometer
• Generation of high-purity, low-temperature samples of ${}^{39}$K for applications in metrology
• Demonstration of improved sensitivity of echo interferometers to gravitational acceleration
• Magnetically guided Cesium interferometer for inertial sensing
• Detection of Applied and Ambient Forces with a Matterwave Magnetic-Gradiometer
• A Wigner Function Approach to Coherence in a Talbot-Lau Interferometer
• Generation of squeezed optical states via stored classical pulses in a Bose gas