Cold-atom gravimetry with a Bose-Einstein condensate

Journal Article · Thu Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.84.033610· OSTI ID:22068755

Debs, J E; Altin, P A; Barter, T H; Doering, D; Dennis, G R; McDonald, G; Close, J D; Robins, N P ^[1]; Anderson, R P ^[2]

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1. Australian Centre for Quantum Atom Optics and Department of Quantum Science, Australian National University, Canberra 0200 (Australia)
2. School of Physics, Monash University, Melbourne 3800 (Australia)

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.

• OSTI ID: 22068755
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 84, Issue 3; Other Information: (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: Syrian Arab Republic; ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
BEAM SPLITTING
BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
GRAVIMETRY
INTERACTIONS
INTERFERENCE
INTERFEROMETERS
MEAN-FIELD THEORY
MOMENTUM TRANSFER
OSCILLATIONS
PHOTONS
POTENTIALS
RUBIDIUM 87
SENSITIVITY
SPACE-TIME
TRANSVERSE MOMENTUM
VISIBILITY