Bright solitonic matter-wave interferometer

G. D. McDonald; C. C.N. Kuhn; K. S. Hardman; S. Bennetts; P. J. Everitt; P. A. Altin; J. E. Debs; J. D. Close; N. P. Robins

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.013002

Bright solitonic matter-wave interferometer

G. D. McDonald^*, C. C.N. Kuhn, K. S. Hardman, S. Bennetts, P. J. Everitt, P. A. Altin, J. E. Debs, J. D. Close, N. P. Robins

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

136 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present the first realization of a solitonic atom interferometer. A Bose-Einstein condensate of 1×104 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 Rb85 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.

Original language	English
Article number	013002
Journal	Physical Review Letters
Volume	113
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.013002
Publication status	Published - 2 Jul 2014

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AU - McDonald, G. D.

AU - Kuhn, C. C.N.

AU - Hardman, K. S.

AU - Bennetts, S.

AU - Everitt, P. J.

AU - Altin, P. A.

AU - Debs, J. E.

AU - Close, J. D.

AU - Robins, N. P.

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AB - We present the first realization of a solitonic atom interferometer. A Bose-Einstein condensate of 1×104 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 Rb85 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.

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Bright solitonic matter-wave interferometer

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