A longitudinal Stern-Gerlach interferometer : the “beaded” atom

Miniatura, Ch.; Perales, F.; Vassilev, G.; Reinhardt, Joachim; Robert, J.; Baudon, J.

doi:10.1051/jp2:1991177

Cited by 23 publications

(17 citation statements)

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“…When an external signal is applied during the delay between the pulses, it contributes to the relative phases between the states, causing a shift in the output fringe positions. We note that experimental arrangements in which interferometric states do not separate in space were first used in longitudinal Stern-Gerlach atom-beam interferometers [32]. A variant of these interferometers also uses a detuned RF field to realize beam splitters [31].…”

Section: Working Principle Of the Multi-state Interferometermentioning

confidence: 99%

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A multi-state interferometer on an atom chip

Petrovic

Herrera²,

Lombardi

et al. 2013

New J. Phys.

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Matter-wave interferometry is a powerful tool for high-precision measurements of the quantum properties of atoms, many-body phenomena and gravity. The most precise matter-wave interferometers exploit the excellent localization in momentum space and coherence of the degenerate gases. Further enhancement of the sensitivity and reduction of complexity are crucial conditions for the success and widening of their applications. Here we introduce a multistate interferometric scheme that offers advances in both these aspects. The coherent coupling between Bose-Einstein condensates in different Zeeman states is used to generate high-harmonic output signals with an enhanced resolution and the maximum possible interferometric visibility. We demonstrate the realization of such an interferometer as a compact, easy to use, atomchip device. This provides an alternative method for the measurement of the light-atom and surface-atom interactions and enables the application of multiparameter sensing schemes in cold-atom interferometry.

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Section: Working Principle Of the Multi-state Interferometermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…where H is the three-diagonal Hamiltonian that couples the neighbouring m F states. The coupling strength can be obtained by applying the angular-momentum algebra and the rotatingwave approximation [33,34] and is given by…”

Section: Theoretical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multi-state interferometer on an atom chip

Petrovic

Herrera²,

Lombardi

et al. 2013

New J. Phys.

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“…The x-and z-co-ordinates refer to the horizontal and vertical directions respectively, where the beam experiments are horizontal (so z is the transverse direction) while the BEC experiments are vertical (so z is the longitudinal direction). We do not give parameters for the "beaded atom" experiments [36] since we believe that spatial interference fringes were not observed, as explained in [64] a Talbot-Lau interference, as applied to matter-wave interference studies, is described in detail in [65]. The particle species in the quoted study are functionalized oligoporphyrin macromolecules with up to 2000 atoms and masses > 25000 Da [60].…”

Section: Particle Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We obtain a high full-loop SGI visibility of 95% with a spin interference signal [18,19] by utilizing the highly accurate magnetic fields of an atom chip [6]. Notwithstanding the impressive endeavors of [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] this is, to the best of our knowledge, the first realization of a complete SG interferometer analogous to that originally envisioned a century ago.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stern-Gerlach Interferometry with the Atom Chip

Keil

Machluf

Margalit

et al. 2021

Molecular Beams in Physics and Chemistry

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In this invited review in honor of 100 years since the Stern-Gerlach (SG) experiments, we describe a decade of SG interferometry on the atom chip. The SG effect has been a paradigm of quantum mechanics throughout the last century, but there has been surprisingly little evidence that the original scheme, with freely propagating atoms exposed to gradients from macroscopic magnets, is a fully coherent quantum process. Specifically, no full-loop SG interferometer (SGI) has been realized with the scheme as envisioned decades ago. Furthermore, several theoretical studies have explained why it is a formidable challenge. Here we provide a review of our SG experiments over the last decade. We describe several novel configurations such as that giving rise to the first SG spatial interference fringes, and the first full-loop SGI realization. These devices are based on highly accurate magnetic fields, originating from an atom chip, that ensure coherent operation within strict constraints described by previous theoretical analyses. Achieving this high level of control over magnetic gradients is expected to facilitate technological applications such as probing of surfaces and currents, as well as metrology. Fundamental applications include the probing of the foundations of quantum theory, gravity, and the interface of quantum mechanics and gravity. We end with an outlook describing possible future experiments.

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“…Attempts towards the implementation of an SGI as envisioned in the past were followed by impressive experiments where signals of spin coherence were detected in a longitudinal interferometer from a beam of atoms passing through regions with magnetic gradients [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. These experiments suffered from three major drawbacks: first, there was no recombination stage and so the splitting could only be done to a distance on the order of the nano-meter scale coherence length, or else the signal was completely suppressed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of a high-stability Stern–Gerlach spatial fringe interferometer

et al. 2019

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The discovery of the Stern-Gerlach (SG) effect almost a century ago was followed by suggestions to use the effect as a basis for matter-wave interferometry. However, the coherence of splitting particles with spin by a magnetic gradient to a distance exceeding the position uncertainty in each of the arms was not demonstrated until recently, where spatial interference fringes were observed in a proof-ofprinciple experiment. Here we present and analyze the performance of an improved high-stability SG spatial fringe interferometer based on two spatially separate wave packets with a maximal distance that is more than an order of magnitude larger than their minimal widths. The improved performance is enabled by accurate magnetic field gradient pulses, originating from a novel atom chip configuration, which ensures high stability of the interferometer operation. We analyze the achieved stability using several models, discuss sources of noise, and detail interferometer optimization procedures. We also present a simple analytical phase-space description of the interferometer sequence that demonstrates quantitatively the complete separation of the superposed wave packets 2 .indistinguishable spin state. This was made possible by the long experimental times available due to the slow velocity of the atoms, initially trapped and prepared in a Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) state, as well as the inherent nonlinearity of the applied magnetic gradients giving rise to a focusing (lensing) effect. Due to the large splitting (relative to the wave packet width), spatial interference fringes could be observed from the SG effect for the first time, turning this experiment into an analog of the double-slit experiment.The interferometric scheme based on spatial interference fringes has an advantage over the closed-loop fourmagnetic-gradients interferometer originally envisioned, in that it does not require very accurate recombination of two wave packets with different spins, as we demonstrate in this paper. Specifically, it is insensitive to imperfections of the wave packet shape, and to magnetic gradient imperfections giving rise to the Humpty-Dumpty effect. On the other hand, it requires high resolution imaging of the fringe patterns and therefore limits the final separations in position or momentum between the two wave packets. This limitation can be overcome by additional accelerating and stopping stages, as demonstrated with Bragg splitting [21]. Such robustness may eventually lead to advantageous technological applications.Here we present an analysis of the performance of a high stability SG spatial fringe longitudinal interferometer, based on an atom chip [22], over a range of momentum splitting and separation distances allowed by the resolution of our imaging system (up to a differential velocity of ∼10 mm s −1 after splitting and separation of ∼4 μm). For this range we show a multi-shot visibility (a measure of stability) larger than 90%, corresponding to a phase instability smaller than 0.45 radians. We analyze the sources o...

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A longitudinal Stern-Gerlach interferometer : the “beaded” atom

Cited by 23 publications

References 0 publications

A multi-state interferometer on an atom chip

A multi-state interferometer on an atom chip

Stern-Gerlach Interferometry with the Atom Chip

Analysis of a high-stability Stern–Gerlach spatial fringe interferometer

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