Experimental study of the role of trap symmetry in an atom-chip interferometer above the Bose-Einstein condensation threshold

TL;DR

This study investigates how trap symmetry affects contrast decay in an atom-chip interferometer with thermal rubidium atoms, aligning experimental results with theoretical models to enhance precision measurement capabilities.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental validation of theoretical predictions on trap symmetry effects in thermal atom interferometers.

Findings

Contrast decay time depends on temperature and trap symmetry.

Experimental results agree with theoretical predictions.

Results enable improved precision measurements with thermal atoms.

Abstract

We report the experimental study of an atom-chip interferometer using ultracold rubidium 87 atoms above the Bose-Einstein condensation threshold. The observed dependence of the contrast decay time with temperature and with the degree of symmetry of the traps during the interferometer sequence is in good agreement with theoretical predictions published in [Dupont-Nivet et al., NJP 18, 113012 (2016)]. These results pave the way for precision measurements with trapped thermal atoms.