Atom interferometry

Miffre, Alain; Jacquey, Marion; Büchner, Matthias; Trénec, Gérard; Vigué, J.

doi:10.1088/0031-8949/74/2/n01

Cited by 35 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 144 publications

(213 reference statements)

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“…We use aluminium alloy for its large E/ρ ratio and we made the largest possible rail in the x direction to get a large I y /A ratio. Using equation (9), we estimate ω 0 /2π ≈ 437 Hz, in reasonable agreement with our measurement, ω 0 /(2π) = 460.4 Hz, with a rather large Q-factor, Q ≈ 60 (more details in [28]). The suspension of the rail is very simple, with rubber blocks made to support machine tools.…”

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confidence: 87%

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Phase noise due to vibrations in Mach-Zehnder atom interferometers

Jacquey

Miffre²,

Büchner

et al. 2006

Europhys. Lett.

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Abstract. -Atom interferometers are very sensitive to accelerations and rotations. This property, which has some very interesting applications, induces a deleterious phase noise due to the seismic noise of the laboratory and this phase noise is sufficiently large to reduce the fringe visibility in many experiments. We develop a model calculation of this phase noise in the case of Mach-Zehnder atom interferometers and we apply this model to our thermal lithium interferometer. We are able to explain the observed phase noise which has been detected through the rapid dependence of the fringe visibility with the diffraction order. We think that the dynamical model developed in the present paper should be very useful to reduce the vibration induced phase noise in atom interferometers, making many new experiments feasible.Introduction. -Atom interferometers are very sensitive to inertial effects [1, 2] and this property was used to build accelerometers [3-10] and gyrometers [11][12][13][14][15]. Because of this large sensitivity, a high mechanical stability of the experiment is required and several experiments [6,7,17,18] used an active control of the interferometer vibrations.In the present letter, we study the phase noise induced by mechanical vibrations in threegratings Mach-Zehnder thermal atom interferometers and we show that the rapid decrease of the fringe visibility with the diffraction order is largely due to this phase noise. Vibrations displace and bend the rail which holds the three diffraction gratings and we have developed a model based on elasticity theory to describe this dynamics. We are thus able to understand the contributions of various frequencies and to make a detailed evaluation of this phase noise in the case of our setup: the result is in good agreement with the phase noise value deduced from fringe visibility measurements. We have built a very stiff rail for our atom interferometer and this arrangement has revealed very efficient: the remaining phase noise is dominated by rotations of the rail, which should be reduced by a better rail suspension.

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confidence: 87%

“…-The present paper has analyzed the phase noise induced in a MachZehnder atom interferometer by mechanical vibrations (more details in [28]). Starting from the well-known inertial sensitivity of atom interferometers, we have developed a simple 1D model describing the dynamics of the rail holding the diffraction gratings.…”

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confidence: 99%

Phase noise due to vibrations in Mach-Zehnder atom interferometers

Jacquey

Miffre²,

Büchner

et al. 2006

Europhys. Lett.

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“…As a consequence, the variation of the visibility with the applied field gradient contains an information on the velocity dispersion of the atoms contributing to the atomic interference signal. As Bragg diffraction is velocity selective, this velocity distribution may differ from the velocity distribution of the lithium beam measured at the entrance of the interferometer [37,38]. The present arrangement with a large coil rather far from the atomic path is not very favorable for a precise analysis, because the applied field is perturbed by the magnetic parts of the setup, but with an improved arrangement, we hope to measure accurately the velocity distribution of the atoms contributing to the interference signal.…”

Section: Fringe Visibility As a Function Of An Applied Magnetic Fimentioning

confidence: 89%

Lithium atom interferometer using laser diffraction: description and experiments

Miffre

Jacquey²,

Büchner³

et al. 2005

Eur. Phys. J. D

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We have built and operated an atom interferometer of the Mach-Zehnder type. The atomic wave is a supersonic beam of lithium seeded in argon and the mirrors and beam-splitters for the atomic wave are based on elastic Bragg diffraction on laser standing waves at λ = 671 nm. We give here a detailed description of our experimental setup and of the procedures used to align its components. We then present experimental signals, exhibiting atomic interference effects with a very high visibility, up to 84.5 ± 1 %. We describe a series of experiments testing the sensitivity of the fringe visibility to the main alignment defects and to the magnetic field gradient.

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“…We have presented a set of experimental data considerably larger than in our first study [1]. The agreement between our theoretical prediction and experiments can be considered as good in the cases of sodium and lithium seeded in argon.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Parallel temperatures in supersonic beams: Ultracooling of light atoms seeded in a heavier carrier gas

Miffre

Jacquey

Büchner

et al. 2005

The Journal of Chemical Physics

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Supersonic expansion is a very powerful tool to produce an atomic beam with a well defined velocity and, by seeding a test gas in such an expansion, the energy of the test gas can be transferred, at least partially, to the very-low-temperature carrier gas. The case usually studied is the one of a heavy gas seeded in a light carrier gas and, in this case, the parallel temperature of the seeded gas is always larger than the one of the carrier gas. In the present paper, we study the opposite case which has received less attention: when a light gas is seeded in a heavier carrier gas, the parallel temperature can be substantially lower for the seeded gas than for the carrier gas. This effect has been first observed by Campargue and coworkers in 2000, in the case of atomic oxygen seeded in argon. In the present paper, we develop a theoretical analysis of this effect, in the high dilution limit, and we compare our theoretical results to several experimental observations, including a set of measurements we have made on a beam of lithium seeded in argon. The agreement between theory and experiments is good.

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Atom interferometry

Cited by 35 publications

References 144 publications

Phase noise due to vibrations in Mach-Zehnder atom interferometers

Phase noise due to vibrations in Mach-Zehnder atom interferometers

Lithium atom interferometer using laser diffraction: description and experiments

Parallel temperatures in supersonic beams: Ultracooling of light atoms seeded in a heavier carrier gas

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