Symmetric microwave potentials for interferometry with thermal atoms on a chip

Mahdi Ammar (1) , Matthieu Dupont-Nivet (1, 2) , Landry Huet (1) , Jean-Paul Pocholle (1) , Peter Rosenbusch (3) , Isabelle Bouchoule (2) , Christoph I. Westbrook (2) , Jérôme Estève (4) , Jakob Reichel (4) , Christine Guerlin (4, 3) , Sylvain Schwartz (1)

1 Thales Research and Technology [Palaiseau]
2 Laboratoire Charles Fabry / Optique atomique
3 LNE - SYRTE - Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais - Systèmes de Référence Temps-Espace
4 LKB (Lhomond) - Laboratoire Kastler Brossel

A trapped atom interferometer involving state-selective adiabatic potentials with two microwave frequencies on a chip is proposed. We show that this configuration provides a way to achieve a high degree of symmetry between the two arms of the interferometer, which is necessary for coherent splitting and recombination of thermal (i.e., noncondensed) atoms. The resulting interferometer holds promise to achieve high contrast and long coherence time, while avoiding the mean-field interaction issues of interferometers based on trapped Bose-Einstein condensates.

Keywords: 37.10.Gh; 03.75.Dg; Physics - Atomic Physics; Atom interferometry techniques; Atom traps and guides; atom interferometry; 37.25.+k

Domains: Quantum Physics [quant-ph]; Atomic Physics [physics.atom-ph]; Optics [physics.optics]

Mahdi Ammar, Matthieu Dupont-Nivet, Landry Huet, Jean-Paul Pocholle, Peter Rosenbusch, et al.. Symmetric microwave potentials for interferometry with thermal atoms on a chip. Physical Review A : Atomic, molecular, and optical physics [1990-2015], 2015, 91 (5), pp.053623. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevA.91.053623⟩. ⟨hal-01163686⟩