Long-lived Bloch oscillations with bosonic Sr atoms and application to gravity measurement at the micrometer scale

被引:234
作者
Ferrari, G. [1 ]
Poli, N. [1 ]
Sorrentino, F. [1 ]
Tino, G. M. [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Florence, INFN, INFM, CNR,Dipartimento Fis & LENS, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, FI, Italy
关键词
D O I
10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.060402
中图分类号
O4 [物理学];
学科分类号
0702 ;
摘要
We report on the observation of Bloch oscillations on the unprecedented time scale of several seconds. The experiment is carried out with ultracold bosonic Sr-88 atoms loaded into a vertical optical standing wave. The negligible atom-atom elastic cross section and zero angular momentum in the ground state makes Sr-88 an almost ideal Bose gas, insensitive to typical mechanisms of decoherence due to thermalization and external stray fields. The small size of the system enables precision measurements of forces at micrometer scale. This is a challenge in physics for studies of surfaces, Casimir effects, and searches for deviations from Newtonian gravity predicted by theories beyond the standard model.
引用
收藏
页数:4
相关论文
共 24 条
[1]   Macroscopic quantum interference from atomic tunnel arrays [J].
Anderson, BP ;
Kasevich, MA .
SCIENCE, 1998, 282 (5394) :1686-1689
[2]   New asymptotic behavior of the surface-atom force out of thermal equilibrium [J].
Antezza, M ;
Pitaevskii, LP ;
Stringari, S .
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 2005, 95 (11)
[3]  
Ashcroft N.W., 1976, Solid State Physics
[4]  
Bloch F., 1929, Z. Phys, V52, P555, DOI [DOI 10.1007/BF01339455, 10.1007/BF01339455]
[5]   Ultracold quantum gases in optical lattices [J].
Bloch, I .
NATURE PHYSICS, 2005, 1 (01) :23-30
[6]   Sensitive measurement of forces at the micron scale using bloch oscillations of ultracold atoms [J].
Carusotto, I ;
Pitaevskii, L ;
Stringari, S ;
Modugno, G ;
Inguscio, M .
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 2005, 95 (09)
[7]   Determination of the fine structure constant based on Bloch oscillations of ultracold atoms in a vertical optical lattice -: art. no. 033001 [J].
Cladé, P ;
de Mirandes, E ;
Cadoret, M ;
Guellati-Khélifa, S ;
Schwob, C ;
Nez, F ;
Julien, L ;
Biraben, F .
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 2006, 96 (03)
[8]   Probing submicron forces by interferometry of Bose-Einstein condensed atoms [J].
Dimopoulos, S ;
Geraci, AA .
PHYSICAL REVIEW D, 2003, 68 (12)
[9]   Cooling of Sr to high phase-space density by laser and sympathetic cooling in isotopic mixtures [J].
Ferrari, G ;
Drullinger, RE ;
Poli, N ;
Sorrentino, F ;
Tino, GM .
PHYSICAL REVIEW A, 2006, 73 (02)
[10]   Atomic interferometer with amplitude gratings of light and its applications to atom based tests of the equivalence principle -: art. no. 240404 [J].
Fray, S ;
Diez, CA ;
Hänsch, TW ;
Weitz, M .
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 2004, 93 (24)