Sensitive Measurement of Forces at the Micron Scale Using Bloch Oscillations of Ultracold Atoms

Journal Article · Fri Aug 26 00:00:00 EDT 2005 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.093202· OSTI ID:20699372

Carusotto, I; Pitaevskii, L ^[1]; Stringari, S ^[1]; Modugno, G; Inguscio, M ^[2]

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1. Istituto Nazionale per Fisica per la Materia BEC-CRS and Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita di Trento, I-38050 Povo (Italy)
2. LENS and Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita di Firenze and INFM, Via Nello Carrara 1, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (Italy)

We show that Bloch oscillations of ultracold fermionic atoms in the periodic potential of an optical lattice can be used for a sensitive measurement of forces at the micrometer length scale, e.g., in the vicinity of a dielectric surface. In particular, the proposed approach allows us to perform a local and direct measurement of the Casimir-Polder force which is, for realistic experimental parameters, as large as 10{sup -4} gravity.

• OSTI ID: 20699372
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 95, Issue 9; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.093202; (c) 2005 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ATOMS
CASIMIR EFFECT
DIELECTRIC MATERIALS
FERMIONS
OSCILLATIONS
PERIODICITY
POTENTIALS
SURFACES