We demonstrate a light-pulse atom interferometer based on the diffraction of free-falling atoms by a picosecond frequency-comb laser. More specifically, we coherently split and recombine wave packets ...of cold $^{87}$Rb atoms by driving stimulated Raman transitions between the $|5s~^2S_{1/2},F=1\rangle$ and $|5s~^2S_{1/2},F=2\rangle$ hyperfine states, using two trains of picosecond pulses in a counter-propagating geometry. We study the impact of the pulses length as well as of the interrogation time onto the contrast of the atom interferometer. Our experimental data are well reproduced by a numerical simulation based on an effective coupling which depends on the overlap between the pulses and the atomic cloud. These results pave the way for extending light-pulse interferometry to transitions in other spectral regions and therefore to other species, for new possibilities in metrology, sensing of gravito-inertial effects and tests of fundamental physics.
Frequency comb atom interferometry Debavelaere, Clément; Solaro, Cyrille; Cladé, Pierre ...
EPJ Web of conferences,
2023, Letnik:
287
Journal Article
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Odprti dostop
We have implemented of a light pulse atom interferometer based on the diffraction of free-falling atoms of Rubidium by a picosecond frequency-comb laser. We have studied the impact of the pulses’ ...length as well as of the interrogation time on the contrast of the fringes. Our data are well reproduce by a theoretical model based on the effective coupling which depend on the overlap between the pulses and the atoms. This technique, which we demonstrated in the visible spectrum on Rb atoms, paves the way for extending light-pulse interferometry to other spectral regions (deep-UV to X-UV) and therefore to new species, since one can benefit from the high peak intensity of the ultrashort pulses which makes nonlinear frequency conversion in crystals and gas targets more efficient.
We demonstrate a light-pulse atom interferometer based on the diffraction of free-falling atoms by a picosecond frequency-comb laser. More specifically, we coherently split and recombine wave packets ...of cold \(^{87}\)Rb atoms by driving stimulated Raman transitions between the \(|5s~^2S_{1/2},F=1\rangle\) and \(|5s~^2S_{1/2},F=2\rangle\) hyperfine states, using two trains of picosecond pulses in a counter-propagating geometry. We study the impact of the pulses length as well as of the interrogation time onto the contrast of the atom interferometer. Our experimental data are well reproduced by a numerical simulation based on an effective coupling which depends on the overlap between the pulses and the atomic cloud. These results pave the way for extending light-pulse interferometry to transitions in other spectral regions and therefore to other species, for new possibilities in metrology, sensing of gravito-inertial effects and tests of fundamental physics.
