A high-flux source system for matter-wave interferometry exploiting tunable interactions

TL;DR

This paper presents a high-flux, ultra-cold atom source with tunable interactions, enabling near-Heisenberg limit expansion rates for improved matter-wave interferometry performance.

Contribution

It introduces a novel atom source system with dynamic scattering length tuning, achieving high flux and minimal expansion energy for advanced interferometry.

Findings

Achieved BECs with over 6×10^4 atoms after 170 ms cooling

Demonstrated ultra-low expansion energy of 4.5 nK

Enabled tunable interactions across two orders of magnitude

Abstract

Atom interferometers allow determining inertial effects to high accuracy. Quantum-projection noise as well as systematic effects impose demands on large atomic flux as well as ultra-low expansion rates. Here we report on a high-flux source of ultra-cold atoms with free expansion rates near the Heisenberg limit directly upon release from the trap. Our results are achieved in a time-averaged optical dipole trap and enabled through dynamic tuning of the atomic scattering length across two orders of magnitude interaction strength via magnetic Feshbach resonances. We demonstrate BECs with more than $6\times 10^{4}$ particles after evaporative cooling for $170$ ms and their subsequent release with a minimal expansion energy of $4.5$ nK in one direction. Based on our results we estimate the performance of an atom interferometer and compare our source system to a high performance chip-trap, as readily available for ultra-precise measurements in micro-gravity environments.