Bloch oscillation phases investigated by multipath Stückelberg atom interferometry
Abstract
Atoms undergoing Bloch oscillations (BOs) in an accelerating optical lattice acquire momentum of two photon recoils per BO. This technique provides a large momentum transfer tool for atom optics, but its full exploitation for atom interferometric sensors requires both experimental and theoretical characterization of associated phases. Each BO involves a Landau-Zener crossing with multiple crossings inducing interference known as Stückelberg interference. We develop a multipath Stückelberg interferometer and investigate atomic phase evolution during BOs, up to 100 photon recoil momentum transfer. We compare to numerically calculated single-particle Schrödinger evolution, demonstrate highly coherent BO sequences, and assess phase stability requirements for BO-enhanced precision interferometry in fundamental physics and sensing applications.
Copyright and License
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.
Acknowledgement
We thank C. Skinner for experimental assistance and A.O. Jamison for a critical reading of the manuscript. We thank F. Fitzek, J. N. Kirsten-Siemß, N. Gaaloul, and K. Hammerer for helpful discussions, and for sharing their Wannier-Stark theoretical calculations. T.R. acknowledges support from the Washington Space Grant Consortium Graduate Fellowship. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Grant No. PHY-2110164.
Data Availability
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
5 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. Contains additional experimental details, data analysis details, and details of numerical simulations.
Files
PhysRevResearch.6.L022012.pdf
Additional details
Funding
- Washington Space Grant Consortium
- National Science Foundation
- PHY-2110164