Bloch oscillations in atom interferometry

Pierre Cladé (1)

1 Métrologie des systèmes simples et tests fondamentaux / Metrology of Simple Systems and Fundamental Tests

In Paris, we are using an atom interferometer to precisely measure the recoil velocity of an atom that absorbs a photon. In order to reach a high sensitivity, many recoils are transferred to atoms using the Bloch oscillations technique. In this lecture, I will present in details this technique and its application to high precision measurement. I will especially describe in details how this method allows us to perform an atom recoil measurement at the level of $1.3 \times 10^{-9}$. This measurement is used in the most precise determination of the fine structure constant that is independent of quantum electrodynamics.

Mots clés: Bloch oscillations; atom recoil; large momentum beamsplitter; atom interferometer

Domaines: Physique Atomique [physics.atom-ph]; Physique Quantique [quant-ph]

Pierre Cladé. Bloch oscillations in atom interferometry. 2014. ⟨hal-00989685⟩