Magnetic tensor gradiometry using Ramsey interferometry of spinor condensates

Abstract

We have realized a magnetic tensor gradiometer by interferometrically measuring the relative phase between two spatially separated Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). We perform simultaneous Ramsey interferometry of the proximate ${}^{87}$Rb spin-1 condensates in freefall and infer their relative Larmor phase -- and thus the differential magnetic field strength -- with a common-mode phase noise suppression exceeding $50\mathrm{dB}$. By appropriately biasing the magnetic field and separating the BECs along orthogonal directions, we measure the magnetic field gradient tensor of ambient and applied magnetic fields with a nominal precision of $30\mu \mathrm{G}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-1}$ and a sensor volume of $2\times 10^{-5}{\mathrm{mm}}^3$. We predict a spin-projection noise limited magnetic energy resolution of order $\hslash$ for typical Zeeman coherence times of trapped condensates with this scheme, even with the low measurement duty cycle inherent to BEC experiments.

7 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (7)

• High-sensitivity diamond magnetometer with nanoscale resolution
• Improved limit on the permanent electric dipole moment of 199Hg
• Scalable Spin Squeezing for Quantum-Enhanced Magnetometry with Bose-Einstein Condensates
• High-Resolution Magnetometry with a Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensate
• 80hk Momentum Separation with Bloch Oscillations in an Optically Guided Atom Interferometer
• Real-time vector field tracking with a cold-atom magnetometer
• In-situ measurement of vacuum window birefringence by atomic spectroscopy

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Quantum limits to the energy resolution of magnetic field sensors
• Magic-wavelength Faraday probe measures spin continuously and without light shifts
• Continuously observing a dynamically decoupled spin-1 quantum gas
• Spinor dynamics in a mixture of spin-1 and spin-2 Bose-Einstein condensates
• A three-dimensional steerable optical tweezer system for ultracold atoms
• Tensor gradiometry with a diamond magnetometer
• Measurement and extinction of vector light shifts using interferometry of spinor condensates
• Dual atomic interferometer with a tunable point of minimum magnetic sensitivity
• Single-shot Stern-Gerlach magnetic gradiometer with an expanding cloud of cold cesium atoms