Suspension of atoms and gravimetry using a pulsed standing wave

Hughes, K. J.; Burke, J. H. T.; Sackett, C. A.

Suspension of atoms and gravimetry using a pulsed standing wave

Authors

Hughes, K. J.

Burke, J. H. T.

Sackett, C. A.

Description

Atoms from an otherwise unconfined 87Rb condensate are shown to be suspended against gravity using repeated reflections from a pulsed optical standing wave. Reflection efficiency was optimized using a triple-pulse sequence that, theoretically, provides accuracies better than 99.9%. Experimentally, up to 100 reflections are observed, leading to dynamical suspension for over 100 ms. The velocity sensitivity of the reflections can be used to determine the local gravitational acceleration. Further, a gravitationally sensitive atom interferometer was implemented using the suspended atoms, with packet coherence maintained for a similar time. These techniques could be useful for the precise measurement of gravity when it is impractical to allow atoms to fall freely over a large distance.
5 pages, 3 figures