Controlling the cold collision shift in high precision atomic interferometry

F. Pereira Dos Santos (1) , H. Marion (1) , S. Bize (1) , Yvan R. P. Sortais (1) , A. Clairon (1) , C. Salomon (2)

1 SYRTE - Systèmes de Référence Temps Espace
2 LKB (Lhomond) - Laboratoire Kastler Brossel

We present here a new method based on a transfer of population by adiabatic passage that allows to prepare cold atomic samples with a well defined ratio of atomic density and atom number. This method is used to perform a measurement of the cold collision frequency shift in a laser cooled cesium clock at the percent level, which makes the evaluation of the cesium fountains accuracy at the $10^{-16}$ level realistic. With an improved set-up, the adiabatic passage would allow measurements of atom number-dependent phase shifts at the $10^{-3}$ level in high precision experiments.

Domaines: Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]; Physique Atomique [physics.atom-ph]

F. Pereira Dos Santos, H. Marion, S. Bize, Yvan R. P. Sortais, A. Clairon, et al.. Controlling the cold collision shift in high precision atomic interferometry. Physical Review Letters, 2002, 89, pp.233004. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.233004⟩. ⟨hal-00111232⟩