Atomic interferometry

Abstract

Atomic interferometry was born recently, towards the end of the 1980s. Its development has been extremely fast, new techniques being pioneered independently and almost simultaneously in different laboratories all over the world. Nowadays, these techniques have reached a high level of sophistication, opening a wide area of fundamental and practical applications. In this paper the general architecture of interferometers in which matter waves are coherently manipulated is described. Various realizations of atom and molecule interferometers are reported, together with the major results obtained with each type of interferometer. Finally, new trends and perspectives are given. Whilst the techniques seem to be almost completely achieved, new developments are coming up, such as the use of new and non-ordinary sources. Forthcoming applications are numerous. They deal with the most fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics, with the metrology of fundamental constants, with the use of interferometers as very sensitive probes of external interactions and inertial effects, with atomic nanolithography, etc.

Planck-scale dissipative effects in atom interferometry

“…Further, note that in absence of dissipation, a = b = c = α = β = γ = ω = 0, and thus λ k = 0, the expressions of I ± in (3.7) reduce to their standard, time-independent ones [30][31][32]:…”

“…Another physical situation in which phenomena leading to irreversibility and dissipation can be studied is provided by atom interferometers, where a beam of nearly monoenergetic atoms is coherently split into two components that are recombined at the exit of the apparatus [30][31][32][33]. The interferometric pattern observed at the end of the devise is influenced by the action of external phenomena, produced e.g.…”

Optical analog of Rabi oscillation suppression due to atomic motion

“…The Rabi oscillation is at the heart of measurement procedures for time and frequency standards [3], photon number in a cavity [4], and other metrological applications [5,6], so its dynamic suppression may be a relevant effect, in particular for atomic clocks; This suppression has been also proposed as a way to prepare specific internal atomic states by projection in quantum information applications [7].…”

Generation of two-flavor vortex atom laser from a five-state medium

“…Since the remarkable observations of Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) in dilute atomic clouds in 1995, there have been many interests in preparing a continuous atom laser [1] and exploring its potential applications in, e.g., gravity measurements through atom interferometry [2]. Although a sub-quantum-noise atom laser is expected to be crucial to improve the interferometer sensitivities, the difficulties for the atomic beam to propagate over a long distance heavily restrict its actual performance [3].…”