Related papers: Analysis of a Material Phase Shifting Element in a…
Atom-surface interactions can significantly modify the intensity and phase of atom de Broglie waves diffracted by a silicon nitride grating. This affects the operation of a material grating as a coherent beam splitter. The phase shift…
In atom optics a material structure is commonly regarded as an amplitude mask for atom waves. However, atomic diffraction patterns formed using material gratings indicate that material structures also operate as phase masks. In this study a…
Four atom optics experiments that each serve to measure atom-surface interactions near nanofabricated gratings are presented here. In these experiments atoms in a beam travel within 25 nm of a material grating bar, and the analysis…
The development of nanotechnology and atom optics relies on understanding how atoms behave and interact with their environment. Isolated atoms can exhibit wave-like (coherent) behaviour with a corresponding de Broglie wavelength and phase…
Matter-wave interferometry with atoms and molecules has attracted a rapidly growing interest over the past two decades, both in demonstrations of fundamental quantum phenomena and in quantum-enhanced precision measurements. Such experiments…
Matter-wave interferometry has become an essential tool in studies on the foundations of quantum physics and for precision measurements. Mechanical gratings have played an important role as coherent beamsplitters for atoms, molecules and…
Three different implementations of interaction-free measurements (IFMs) in solid-state nanodevices are discussed. The first one is based on a series of concatenated Mach-Zehnder interferometers, in analogy to optical-IFM setups. The second…
The exquisite precision of atom interferometers has sparked the interest of a large community for use cases ranging from fundamental physics to geodesy and inertial navigation. However, their practical use for onboard applications is still…
A new technique for maintaining high contrast in an atom interferometer is used to measure large de Broglie wave phase shifts. Dependence of an interaction induced phase on the atoms' velocity is compensated by applying an engineered…
We report on the experimental demonstration of a horizontal accelerometer based on atom interferometry using counterpropagative Raman transitions between the states $F=1,m_F=\mp1$ and $F=2,m_F=\pm1$ of $^{87}$Rb. Compared to the $F=1,m_F=0…
An atom interferometer based on a Stern-Gerlach beam splitter is proposed. Atom scattering from a combination of magnetic quadrupole and homogeneous magnetic fields is considered. Using Raman transitions, atoms are coherently excited into…
Interference with atomic and molecular matter waves is a rich branch of atomic physics and quantum optics. It started with atom diffraction from crystal surfaces and the separated oscillatory fields technique used in atomic clocks. Atom…
Guided-wave atom interferometers measure interference effects using atoms held in a confining potential. In one common implementation, the confinement is primarily two-dimensional, and the atoms move along the nearly free dimension under…
We have developed a matter wave interferometer based on the diffraction of atoms from effective absorption gratings of light. In a setup with cold rubidium atoms in an atomic fountain the interferometer has been used to carry out tests of…
Atom interferometers measure quantum interference patterns in the wave functions of cold atoms that follow superpositions of different space-time trajectories. These can be sensitive to phase shifts induced by fundamental physics processes…
Wavefront distortions are a leading source of systematic uncertainty in light-pulse atom interferometry, limiting absolute measurements of gravitational acceleration at the 30 nm/s$^2$ level. Here, we demonstrate in situ spatially resolved…
The wave function of an atom passed through a diffraction grating acquires a regular space structure and the interaction of another particle with this atom can be thought of as scattering on a 'quantum grating' composed of a single atom.…
Wavefront aberrations are one of the largest uncertainty factors in present atom interferometers. We present a detailed numerical and experimental analysis of this effect based on measured aberrations from optical windows. By placing…
It is a commonly stated that the acceleration sensitivity of an atom interferometer is proportional to the space-time area enclosed between the two interfering arms. Here we derive the interferometric phase shift for an extensive class of…
Coherent interactions between electromagnetic and matter waves lie at the heart of quantum science and technology. However, the diffraction nature of light has limited the scalability of many atom-light based quantum systems. Here, we use…