Large momentum beam splitter using Bloch oscillations

The sensitivity of an inertial sensor based on an atomic interferometer is proportional to the velocity separation of atoms in the two arms of the interferometer. In this Letter we describe how Bloch oscillations can be used to increase this separation and to create a large momentum transfer (LMT) b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2009-06, Vol.102 (24), p.240402-240402, Article 240402
Main Authors: Cladé, Pierre, Guellati-Khélifa, Saïda, Nez, François, Biraben, François
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ACCELERATION
BEAM SPLITTING
CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS
FLUCTUATIONS
INTERFEROMETERS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MOMENTUM TRANSFER
OSCILLATIONS
PULSES
SENSORS
VARIATIONS
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Summary:The sensitivity of an inertial sensor based on an atomic interferometer is proportional to the velocity separation of atoms in the two arms of the interferometer. In this Letter we describe how Bloch oscillations can be used to increase this separation and to create a large momentum transfer (LMT) beam splitter. We experimentally demonstrate a separation of 10 recoil velocities. Light shifts during the acceleration introduce phase fluctuations which can reduce the fringes contrast. We precisely calculate this effect and demonstrate that it can be significantly reduced by using a suitable combination of LMT pulses. We finally show that this method seems to be very promising to realize a LMT beam splitter with several tens of recoils and a very good efficiency.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.240402