Sagnac effect in a chain of mesoscopic quantum rings
- Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030 (United States)
The ability to interferometrically detect inertial rotations via the Sagnac effect has been a strong stimulus for the development of atom interferometry because of the potential 10{sup 10} enhancement of the rotational phase shift in comparison to optical Sagnac gyroscopes. Here we analyze ballistic transport of matter waves in a one-dimensional chain of N coherently coupled quantum rings in the presence of a rotation of angular frequency {omega}. We show that the transmission probability, T, exhibits zero transmission stop gaps as a function of the rotation rate interspersed with regions of rapidly oscillating finite transmission. With increasing N, the transition from zero transmission to the oscillatory regime becomes an increasingly sharp function of {omega} with a slope {partial_derivative}T/{partial_derivative}{omega}{approx}N{sup 2}. The steepness of this slope dramatically enhances the response to rotations in comparison to conventional single ring interferometers such as the Mach-Zehnder interferometer and leads to a phase sensitivity well below the quantum shot-noise limit typical of atom interferometers.
- OSTI ID:
- 21304725
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. A, Vol. 79, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.79.053607; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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