Study of surface potentials using resonant tunnelling of cold atoms in optical lattices

Abstract

We study a feasibility of precision measurements of surface potentials at micrometer distances using resonant tunneling of cold atoms trapped in vertical optical lattices. A modulation of an amplitude of the lattice potential induces atomic tunneling among the lattice sites. The resonant modulation frequency corresponds to a difference of potential energy between latices sites which is defined by external force i.e. gravity. The vicinity of the surface alters the external potentials, and hence the resonant frequency. Application of this method allows accurate study of Casimir-type potentials and improvement of the present experimental validity of the Newtonian gravitational potential at the distance range of 5 -30 µm.

A trapped ultracold atom force sensor with a μm-scale spatial resolution

“…Atom interferometry has led to extremely sensitive and accurate inertial sensors such as gravimeters [1][2][3], gradiometers [4] or gyrometers [5]. These sensors are of great interest to perform tests of fundamental physics such as measuring fundamental constants [6][7][8][9], testing the equivalence principle [10][11][12][13], detecting gravitational waves [14,15] or probing short range forces [16][17][18]. Trapped atom interferometers in particular, allowing for longer interrogation times and thus for a better measurement sensitivity without increasing the interrogation spatial area, are paving the way for much more compact sensors.…”

Continuous loading of an atom beam into an optical lattice

“…The proposal is described for the case of ytterbium atoms, although an application of the proposed method on other atomic species is possible. Ultra-cold samples of Yb atoms are of great interest in the context of precision measurements including optical clocks [18] and matterwave interferometry [19,20].…”