Large Momentum Beam Splitter Using Bloch Oscillations
- Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, UPMC, Ecole Normale Superieure, CNRS, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05 (France)
The sensitivity of an inertial sensor based on an atomic interferometer is proportional to the velocity separation of atoms in the two arms of the interferometer. In this Letter we describe how Bloch oscillations can be used to increase this separation and to create a large momentum transfer (LMT) beam splitter. We experimentally demonstrate a separation of 10 recoil velocities. Light shifts during the acceleration introduce phase fluctuations which can reduce the fringes contrast. We precisely calculate this effect and demonstrate that it can be significantly reduced by using a suitable combination of LMT pulses. We finally show that this method seems to be very promising to realize a LMT beam splitter with several tens of recoils and a very good efficiency.
- OSTI ID:
- 21346961
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 24; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.240402; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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