Cold-atom gravimetry with a Bose-Einstein condensate

We present a cold-atom gravimeter operating with a sample of Bose-condensed {sup 87}Rb atoms. Using a Mach-Zehnder configuration with the two arms separated by a two-photon Bragg transition, we observe interference fringes with a visibility of (83{+-}6)% at T=3 ms. We exploit large momentum transfer...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics Atomic, molecular, and optical physics, 2011-09, Vol.84 (3), Article 033610
Main Authors: Debs, J. E., Altin, P. A., Barter, T. H., Döring, D., Dennis, G. R., McDonald, G., Anderson, R. P., Close, J. D., Robins, N. P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
BEAM SPLITTING
BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS
GRAVIMETRY
INTERACTIONS
INTERFERENCE
INTERFEROMETERS
MEAN-FIELD THEORY
MOMENTUM TRANSFER
OSCILLATIONS
PHOTONS
POTENTIALS
RUBIDIUM 87
SENSITIVITY
SPACE-TIME
TRANSVERSE MOMENTUM
VISIBILITY
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Summary:We present a cold-atom gravimeter operating with a sample of Bose-condensed {sup 87}Rb atoms. Using a Mach-Zehnder configuration with the two arms separated by a two-photon Bragg transition, we observe interference fringes with a visibility of (83{+-}6)% at T=3 ms. We exploit large momentum transfer (LMT) beam splitting to increase the enclosed space-time area of the interferometer using higher-order Bragg transitions and Bloch oscillations. We also compare fringes from condensed and thermal sources and observe a reduced visibility of (58{+-}4)% for the thermal source. We suspect the loss in visibility is caused partly by wave-front aberrations, to which the thermal source is more susceptible due to its larger transverse momentum spread. Finally, we discuss briefly the potential advantages of using a coherent atomic source for LMT, and we present a simple mean-field model to demonstrate that with currently available experimental parameters, interaction-induced dephasing will not limit the sensitivity of inertial measurements using freely falling, coherent atomic sources.
ISSN:1050-2947
1094-1622
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevA.84.033610