Atom Interferometry with Top-Hat Laser Beams

The uniformity of the intensity and phase of laser beams is crucial to high-performance atom interferometers. Inhomogeneities in the laser intensity profile cause contrast reductions and systematic effects in interferometers operated with atom sources at micro-Kelvin temperatures, and detrimental di...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Mielec, N, Altorio, M, Sapam, R, Horville, D, Holleville, D, Sidorenkov, L A, Landragin, A, Geiger, R
Format Paper Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 08.11.2018
Subjects
Atom interferometry
Beam splitters
Computer simulation
Gaussian beams (optics)
Interferometers
Interrogation
Laser beams
Lasers
Momentum transfer
Performance enhancement
Physics - Atomic Physics
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Physics - Optics
Physics - Quantum Physics
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Summary:The uniformity of the intensity and phase of laser beams is crucial to high-performance atom interferometers. Inhomogeneities in the laser intensity profile cause contrast reductions and systematic effects in interferometers operated with atom sources at micro-Kelvin temperatures, and detrimental diffraction phase shifts in interferometers using large momentum transfer beam splitters. We report on the implementation of a so-called top-hat laser beam in a long-interrogation-time cold-atom interferometer to overcome the issue of the inhomogeneous laser intensity encountered when using Gaussian laser beams. We characterize the intensity and relative phase profiles of the top-hat beam and demonstrate its gain in atom-optics efficiency over a Gaussian beam, in agreement with numerical simulations. We discuss the application of top-hat beams to improve the performance of different architectures of atom interferometers.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1808.03355