Matter-wave Interferometry with Phase Fluctuating Bose-Einstein Condensates

TL;DR

This paper shows that matter-wave interferometers with elongated Bose-Einstein condensates are resilient to phase fluctuations, maintaining reproducible relative phases, but larger fluctuations reduce coherence time, especially with asymmetries.

Contribution

It demonstrates the robustness of atom interferometers with phase-fluctuating BECs and analyzes how phase fluctuations affect coherence time and interferometer performance.

Findings

Interferometers remain robust despite phase fluctuations.

Larger phase fluctuations limit coherence time.

Asymmetries in the wells exacerbate coherence loss.

Abstract

Elongated Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) exhibit strong spatial phase fluctuations even well below the BEC transition temperature. We demonstrate that atom interferometers using such condensates are robust against phase fluctuations, i.e. the relative phase of the split condensate is reproducible despite axial phase fluctuations. However, larger phase fluctuations limit the coherence time, especially in the presence of some asymmetries in the two wells of the interferometer.