Noise sensitivity of an atomic velocity sensor

Abstract

We use Bloch oscillations to accelerate coherently Rubidium atoms. The variation of the velocity induced by this acceleration is an integer number times the recoil velocity due to the absorption of one photon. The measurement of the velocity variation is achieved using two velocity selective Raman pi-pulses: the first pulse transfers atoms from the hyperfine state 5S1/2 |F=2, mF=0> to 5S1/2, |F=1, mF = 0> into a narrow velocity class. After the acceleration of this selected atomic slice, we apply the second Raman pulse to bring the resonant atoms back to the initial state 5S1/2, |F=2, mF = 0>. The populations in (F=1 and F=2) are measured separately by using a one-dimensional time-of-flight technique. To plot the final velocity distribution we repeat this procedure by scanning the Raman beam frequency of the second pulse. This two pi-pulses system constitutes then a velocity sensor. Any noise in the relative phase shift of the Raman beams induces an error in the measured velocity. In this paper we present a theoretical and an experimental analysis of this velocity sensor, which take into account the phase fluctuations during the Raman pulses.

References in corpus (1)

• Bloch oscillations of ultracold atoms: a tool for a metrological determination of $h/m_{Rb}$

Cited by in corpus (3)

• A promising method for the measurement of the local acceleration of gravity using Bloch oscillations of ultracold atoms in a vertical standing wave
• Suppression of motional dephasing using state mapping
• Precise determination of h/m_Rb using Bloch oscillations and atomic interferometry: a mean to deduce the fine structure constant