A marginally stable optical resonator for enhanced atom interferometry

TL;DR

This paper introduces a marginally stable optical resonator design optimized for atom interferometry, enabling high power build-up and robust manipulation of atomic wavepackets through a novel cavity geometry.

Contribution

It presents a new optical resonator configuration that enhances power and stability for atom interferometry applications, including implementation strategies for Large Momentum Transfer Bragg diffraction.

Findings

Optical gains of about 100 are achievable with low-loss optics.

The resonator maintains robustness against longitudinal misalignments.

The design facilitates enhanced coherent manipulation of cold atomic ensembles.

Abstract

We propose a marginally stable optical resonator suitable for atom interferometry. The resonator geometry is based on two flat mirrors at the focal planes of a lens that produces the large beam waist required to coherently manipulate cold atomic ensembles. Optical gains of about 100 are achievable using optics with part-per-thousand losses. The resulting power build-up will allow for enhanced coherent manipulation of the atomic wavepackets such as large separation beamsplitters. We study the effect of longitudinal misalignments and assess the robustness of the resonator in terms of intensity and phase profiles of the intra-cavity field. We also study how to implement atom interferometry based on Large Momentum Transfer Bragg diffraction in such a cavity.