Erratum: Bright Solitonic Matter-Wave Interferometer [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 013002 (2014)]

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.013002.

Simultaneous Precision Gravimetry and Magnetic Gradiometry with a Bose-Einstein Condensate: A High Precision, Quantum Sensor

A Bose-Einstein condensate is used as an atomic source for a high precision sensor. A 5×10^{6}  atom F=1 spinor condensate of ^{87}Rb is released into free fall for up to 750 ms and probed with a T=130  ms Mach-Zehnder atom interferometer based on Bragg transitions. The Bragg interferometer simultaneously addresses the three magnetic states |m_{f}=1,0,-1⟩, facilitating a simultaneous measurement of the acceleration due to gravity with a 1000 run precision of Δg/g=1.45×10^{-9} and the magnetic field gradient to a precision of 120  pT/m.

Bright solitonic matter-wave interferometer

We present the first realization of a solitonic atom interferometer. A Bose-Einstein condensate of 1×10(4) atoms of rubidium-85 is loaded into a horizontal optical waveguide. Through the use of a Feshbach resonance, the s-wave scattering length of the 85Rb atoms is tuned to a small negative value. This attractive atomic interaction then balances the inherent matter-wave dispersion, creating a bright solitonic matter wave. A Mach-Zehnder interferometer is constructed by driving Bragg transitions with the use of an optical lattice colinear with the waveguide. Matter-wave propagation and interferometric fringe visibility are compared across a range of s-wave scattering values including repulsive, attractive and noninteracting values. The solitonic matter wave is found to significantly increase fringe visibility even compared with a noninteracting cloud.

11 W narrow linewidth laser source at 780 nm for laser cooling and manipulation of Rubidium

We present a narrow linewidth continuous laser source with over 11 W output power at 780 nm, based on single-pass frequency doubling of an amplified 1560 nm fibre laser with 36% efficiency. This source offers a combination of high power, simplicity, mode quality and stability. Without any active stabilization, the linewidth is measured to be below 10 kHz. The fibre seed is tunable over 60 GHz, which allows access to the D₂ transitions in ⁸⁷Rb and ⁸⁵Rb, providing a viable high-power source for laser cooling as well as for large-momentum-transfer beamsplitters in atom interferometry. Sources of this type will pave the way for a new generation of high flux, high duty-cycle degenerate quantum gas experiments.

85Rb tunable-interaction Bose-Einstein condensate machine

We describe our experimental setup for creating stable Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of (85)Rb with tunable interparticle interactions. We use sympathetic cooling with (87)Rb in two stages, initially in a tight Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic trap and subsequently in a weak, large-volume, crossed optical dipole trap, using the 155 G Feshbach resonance to manipulate the elastic and inelastic scattering properties of the (85)Rb atoms. Typical (85)Rb condensates contain 4 x 10(4) atoms with a scattering length of a=+200a(0). Many aspects of the design presented here could be adapted to other dual-species BEC machines, including those involving degenerate Fermi-Bose mixtures. Our minimalist apparatus is well suited to experiments on dual-species and spinor Rb condensates, and has several simplifications over the (85)Rb BEC machine at JILA, which we discuss at the end of this article.

Ramsey interferometry with an atom laser

We present results on a free-space atom interferometer operating on the first order magnetically insensitive |F = 1,mF = 0) --> |F = 2,mF = 0) ground state transition of Bose-condensed (87)Rb atoms. A pulsed atom laser is output-coupled from a Bose-Einstein condensate and propagates through a sequence of two internal state beam splitters, realized via coherent Raman transitions between the two interfering states. We observe Ramsey fringes with a visibility close to 100% and determine the current and the potentially achievable interferometric phase sensitivity. This system is well suited to testing recent proposals for generating and detecting squeezed atomic states.

Coherent 455 nm beam production in a cesium vapor

We observe coherent, cw, 455 nm blue-beam production via frequency upconversion in cesium vapor. Two IR lasers induce strong double excitation in a heated cesium vapor cell, allowing the atoms to undergo a double cascade and produce a coherent, collimated, blue beam copropagating with the two IR pump lasers.

A two-state Raman coupler for coherent atom optics

We present results on a Raman laser-system that resonantly drives a closed two-photon transition between two levels in different hyperfine ground states of (87)Rb. The coupler is based on a novel optical design for producing two phase-coherent optical beams to drive a Raman transition. Operated as an outcoupler, it produces an atom laser in a single internal atomic state, with the lower divergence and increased brightness typical of a Raman outcoupler. Due to the optical nature of the outcoupling, the two-state outcoupler is an ideal candidate for transferring photon correlations onto atom-laser beams. As our laser system couples just two hyperfine ground states, it has also been used as an internal state beamsplitter, taking the next major step towards free space Ramsey interferometry with an atom laser.

Piezo-locking a diode laser with saturated absorption spectroscopy

We demonstrate modulation-based frequency locking of an external cavity diode laser, utilizing a piezo-electrically actuated mirror, external to the laser cavity, to create an error signal from saturated absorption spectroscopy. With this method, a laser stabilized to a rubidium hyperfine transition has a FWHM of 130 kHz over seconds, making the locked laser suitable for experiments in atomic physics, such as creating and manipulating Bose-Einstein condensates. This technique combines the advantages of low-amplitude modulation, simplicity, performance, and price, factors that are usually considered to be mutually exclusive.