Matterwave interferometric velocimetry of cold Rb atoms

Abstract

We consider the matterwave interferometric measurement of atomic velocities, which forms a building block for all matterwave inertial measurements. A theoretical analysis, addressing both the laboratory and atomic frames and accounting for residual Doppler sensitivity in the beamsplitter and recombiner pulses, is followed by an experimental demonstration, with measurements of the velocity distribution within a 20 $\mathrm{\mu }$K cloud of rubidium atoms. Our experiments use Raman transitions between the long-lived ground hyperfine states, and allow quadrature measurements that yield the full complex interferometer signal and hence discriminate between positive and negative velocities. The technique is most suitable for measurement of colder samples.

Keywords:

• Velocity measurement
• atom interferometry
• cold atoms
• laser cooling
• ion traps

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Publisher’s Note

Notes

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the EPSRC through the UK Quantum Technology Hub for Sensors & Metrology [grant number EP/M013294/1]; by Dstl under contracts [DSTLX-1000091758], [DSTLX-1000097855]. The data presented in this paper are available for download from https://doi.org/10.5258/SOTON/D0278.