An atom interferometer driven by a picosecond frequency comb

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel atom interferometer using a picosecond frequency comb to coherently manipulate cold rubidium atoms, opening new avenues for precision measurement and fundamental physics tests.

Contribution

It introduces a new light-pulse atom interferometer driven by a picosecond frequency comb, expanding the spectral range and species applicability of atom interferometry.

Findings

Experimental data match numerical simulations based on pulse-atom overlap.

Contrast depends on pulse length and interrogation time.

Method enables extension to other spectral regions and species.

Abstract

We demonstrate a light-pulse atom interferometer based on the diffraction of free-falling atoms by a picosecond frequency-comb laser. More specifically, we coherently split and recombine wave packets of cold $^{87}$Rb atoms by driving stimulated Raman transitions between the $|5s~^2S_{1/2},F=1\rangle$ and $|5s~^2S_{1/2},F=2\rangle$ hyperfine states, using two trains of picosecond pulses in a counter-propagating geometry. We study the impact of the pulses length as well as of the interrogation time onto the contrast of the atom interferometer. Our experimental data are well reproduced by a numerical simulation based on an effective coupling which depends on the overlap between the pulses and the atomic cloud. These results pave the way for extending light-pulse interferometry to transitions in other spectral regions and therefore to other species, for new possibilities in metrology, sensing of gravito-inertial effects and tests of fundamental physics.