Robust Macroscopic Matter-Wave Interferometry with Solids

TL;DR

This paper introduces protocols using multiple matter-wave interferometers to mitigate environmental noise effects, enabling more robust interference patterns and entanglement preservation in solid-based matter-wave experiments.

Contribution

It develops a general framework employing N+1 interferometers with different masses to correct for environmental potential fields up to order N, without requiring quantum correlations.

Findings

Protocols significantly reduce noise impact on interference visibility.

Framework applicable to stochastic and time-varying environmental fields.

Extension of noise mitigation techniques to entanglement protection.

Abstract

Matter-wave interferometry with solids is highly susceptible to minute fluctuations of environmental fields, including gravitational effects from distant sources. Hence, experiments require a degree of shielding that is extraordinarily challenging to achieve in realistic terrestrial or even space-based set-ups. Here, we design protocols that exploit the spatial correlations that are inherent in perturbations due to distant sources to reduce significantly their impact on the visibility of interference patterns. We show that interference patterns that are robust to such type of noise can be encoded in the joint probability distribution of two or more interferometers, provided that these are initialized in suitable states. We develop a general framework that makes use of N+1 interferometers that may differ in their masses to correct for environmental potential fields up to order N in their multipole expansion. Remarkably, our approach works for fields that fluctuate stochastically in any time scale and does not require the presence of quantum correlations among the different interferometers. Finally, we also show that the same ideas can be extended to the protection of entanglement between pairs of interferometers.