Non-Destructive Probing of Rabi Oscillations on the Cesium Clock Transition near the Standard Quantum Limit

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a non-destructive method to observe Rabi oscillations in cesium atoms near the standard quantum limit, using phase shifts in a probe laser to infer atomic state evolution.

Contribution

It introduces a novel non-destructive probing technique for Rabi oscillations on the cesium clock transition, including single and two-color schemes, achieving measurements close to the quantum limit.

Findings

Non-destructive observation of Rabi oscillations achieved.

Probing schemes successfully infer atomic state evolution.

Spin fluctuations measured near the standard quantum limit.

Abstract

We report on non-destructive observation of Rabi oscillations on the Cs clock transition. The internal atomic state evolution of a dipole-trapped ensemble of cold atoms is inferred from the phase shift of a probe laser beam as measured using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. We describe a single color as well as a two-color probing scheme. Using the latter, measurements of the collective pseudo-spin projection of atoms in a superposition of the clock states are performed and the observed spin fluctuations are shown to be close to the standard quantum limit.