Aberrations in (3+1)D Bragg diffraction using pulsed Gaussian laser beams

Abstract

We analyze the transfer function of a three-dimensional atomic Bragg beamsplitter formed by two counterpropagating pulsed Gaussian laser beams. Even for ultracold atomic ensembles, the transfer efficiency depends significantly on the residual velocity of the particles as well as on losses into higher diffraction orders. Additional aberrations are caused by the spatial intensity variation and wavefront curvature of the Gaussian beam envelope, studied with (3+1)D numerical simulations. The temporal pulse shape also affects the transfer efficiency significantly. Thus, we consider the practically important rectangular-, Gaussian-, Blackman- and hyperbolic secant pulses. For the latter, we can describe the time-dependent response analytically with the Demkov-Kunike method. The experimentally observed stretching of the $\pi$-pulse time is explained from a renormalization of the simple Pendellösung frequency. Finally, we compare the analytical predictions for the velocity-dependent transfer function with effective (1+1)D numerical simulations for pulsed Gaussian beams, as well as experimental data and find very good agreement, considering a mixture of Bose-Einstein condensate and thermal cloud.

20 pages, 15 figures

References in corpus (20)

• Atom Interferometers
• Measurement of the fine-structure constant as a test of the Standard Model
• New determination of the fine structure constant and test of the quantum electrodynamics
• Interferometry with Bose-Einstein Condensates in Microgravity
• Testing General Relativity with Atom Interferometry
• Quantum Test of the Universality of Free Fall
• Feshbach resonances in rubidium 87: Precision measurement and analysis
• Atom Interferometry with up to 24-Photon-Momentum-Transfer Beam Splitters
• Test of Equivalence Principle at $10^{-8}$ Level by a Dual-species Double-diffraction Raman Atom Interferometer
• Dual Matter-Wave Inertial Sensors in Weightlessness
• Quantum Tests of the Einstein Equivalence Principle with the STE-QUEST Space Mission
• Atom-wave diffraction between the Raman-Nath and the Bragg regime: Effective Rabi frequency, losses, and phase shifts
• The effect of wavefront aberrations in atom interferometry
• Design of a dual species atom interferometer for space
• Testing Atom and Neutron Neutrality with Atom Interferometry
• Bi-selective pulses for large-area atom interferometry
• Quantum simulators by design - many-body physics in reconfigurable arrays of tunnel-coupled traps
• Resonant Feshbach scattering of fermions in one-dimensional optical lattices
• Reduction of local velocity spreads by linear potentials
• Feasibility of UV lasing without inversion in mercury vapor