Atom interferometers that operate in the spatial domain through continuous measurement of an atomic beam provide benefits in the elimination of sensor dead time and reduced sensitivity to certain noise sources. Further improving its operation, time-domain control of a spatial-domain interferometer can provide necessary methods of error suppression and dynamic range improvement. We model numerically and experimentally demonstrate methods of time-domain control in a 3D-cooled atomic beam interferometer. We demonstrate suppression of magnetic-field-induced phase noise through rapid reversal of the direction of inertial sensitivity at a rate faster than the inverse interrogation time of the interferometer.
We present new modes of operation in a continuous, 3D-cooled atomic beam interferometer designed for inertial sensing. In these experiments, a moving optical molasses cooling stage provides both three-dimensional cooling and excellent dynamic control over atomic beam velocity. By modulating the atomic beam velocity, we modulate the interferometer scale factor, enabling us to extract the absolute inertial phase over many phase cycles without sacrificing short-term sensitivity. These demonstrations provide a path toward solving the longstanding challenge of limited dynamic range in spatial-domain atom interferometric inertial sensors.
Through the use of a high-flux rubidium beam source with sub-Doppler temperatures in three dimensions, we have demonstrated an inertially sensitive atom interferometer featuring high contrast, low noise, and continuous measurement with high bandwidth. We describe the cold-atom source and the optical design that optimizes interferometer contrast. Finally, we demonstrate useful features enabled by this architecture, such as continuous phase shear readout and rapid reversal of inertial sensitivity. This demonstration may enable future cold-atom sensors that measure with both high sensitivity and high bandwidth.
We study decoherence in continuously cooled atom interferometers by performing Raman-Ramsey fringe measurements in a continuous beam of 3D-sub-Doppler-cooled rubidium atoms. The atom beam is produced by a two-stage cold atom source that is designed to mitigate the decoherence of atomic interference caused by cooling induced fluorescence. The atom beam source produces a collimated beam of over 109 atoms/s that is cooled by polarization gradient cooling to temperatures as low as 14 µK. We infer the potential performance of this atom beam source in a cold-atom gyroscope and use numerical models of motion in 6 degrees of freedom to study the expected performance on dynamic platforms.
Interferometric stability of polarization-entangled photons in quantum repeaters for long time intervals is an important capability for future scalable quantum networks linked over distances greater than hundreds of kilometers. A quantum memory node is a necessary component of the quantum repeater, where entanglement is prepared and swapped to extend entangled states from remote to distant nodes. Room temperature fluctuations can have significant effects on phase stability of the polarization states stored in the quantum memory. Although common-path stabilization in a quantum memory has been demonstrated, passive stabilization to room temperature variations has not been realized. Our approach to the quantum memory uses a single collective excitation encoded in two separate spatial modes in a cold ensemble of rubidium atoms. The two spatial modes are combined into a single path using the birefringence of two calcite crystals. However, normal lab temperature changes introduces a phase shift between the ordinary and extraordinary pathways on the order of 2π. We demonstrate passive temperature stabilization by alignment of the ordinary path in one crystal to the extraordinary path in the second crystal and vice versa. We show a phase stability on the order of ten hours by homodyne detection of classical light modes exiting the interferometer. We corroborate the phase stability of the quantum memory with a correlation measurement between polarization states of a signal photon generated at the formation of the collective atomic excitation and a retrieved idler photon during the destruction of the atomic excitation. We measure a Bell-CHSH parameter for both the unstable configuration and for the stable configuration. For an unstable calcite crystal configuration, we do not measure a violation of the Bell-CHSH inequality1 (S≤2) with S = 1.42 ± 0.087. For the stable calcite crystal configuration, we measure a violation of Bell-CHSH inequality (S>2) with S = 2.48±0.099.
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