Demonstration of perfect coherence preservation for matter-waves perturbed by a delta-kicked rotor

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that matter-wave coherence can be perfectly preserved in an atom interferometer subjected to specific periodic kicks, enabling precise recoil frequency measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a method to achieve perfect coherence preservation in atom interferometers under certain kicking conditions, regardless of kick randomness or strength.

Findings

Coherence is perfectly preserved when the kicking period matches a rational fraction of the inverse recoil frequency.

The width of coherence revival narrows with increasing kick number and strength.

The method allows for highly accurate measurement of the recoil frequency.

Abstract

We demonstrate perfect coherence preservation in an atom interferometer perturbed by kicks from off-resonant standing wave pulses. Under most conditions, the decoherence induced by the pulses reduces the signal; however, the coherence is perfectly preserved when the kicking period is equal to the rational fraction of the inverse atomic recoil frequency, independent of the number or the randomness of the strength of the applied kicks. The width narrowing of coherence revival as a function of increasing kick number and strength provides a new accurate measurement of the recoil frequency.