Article

Bright Solitonic Matter-Wave Interferometer

Gordon McDonaldQuantum Sensors and Atomlaser Lab, Department of Quantum Science, Australian National University, Canberra 0200, AustraliaC. C. N. KuhnQuantum Sensors and Atomlaser Lab, Department of Quantum Science, Australian National University, Canberra 0200, AustraliaKyle S. HardmanQuantum Sensors and Atomlaser Lab, Department of Quantum Science, Australian National University, Canberra 0200, AustraliaShayne BennettsQuantum Sensors and Atomlaser Lab, Department of Quantum Science, Australian National University, Canberra 0200, AustraliaP. J. EverittQuantum Sensors and Atomlaser Lab, Department of Quantum Science, Australian National University, Canberra 0200, AustraliaP. A. AltinQuantum Sensors and Atomlaser Lab, Department of Quantum Science, Australian National University, Canberra 0200, AustraliaJ. E. DebsQuantum Sensors and Atomlaser Lab, Department of Quantum Science, Australian National University, Canberra 0200, AustraliaJ. D. CloseQuantum Sensors and Atomlaser Lab, Department of Quantum Science, Australian National University, Canberra 0200, AustraliaN. P. RobinsQuantum Sensors and Atomlaser Lab, Department of Quantum Science, Australian National University, Canberra 0200, Australia

2014en

ABI

Abstract

We present the first realization of a solitonic atom interferometer. A Bose-Einstein condensate of 1×10(4) atoms of rubidium-85 is loaded into a horizontal optical waveguide. Through the use of a Feshbach resonance, the s-wave scattering length of the 85Rb atoms is tuned to a small negative value. This attractive atomic interaction then balances the inherent matter-wave dispersion, creating a bright solitonic matter wave. A Mach-Zehnder interferometer is constructed by driving Bragg transitions with the use of an optical lattice colinear with the waveguide. Matter-wave propagation and interferometric fringe visibility are compared across a range of s-wave scattering values including repulsive, attractive and noninteracting values. The solitonic matter wave is found to significantly increase fringe visibility even compared with a noninteracting cloud.

Identifiers

DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.113.013002

Citations and references

Cited by 20 references

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