47 research outputs found
Progress in Atomic Fountains at LNE-SYRTE
We give an overview of the work done with the Laboratoire National de
M\'etrologie et d'Essais-Syst\`emes de R\'ef\'erence Temps-Espace (LNE-SYRTE)
fountain ensemble during the last five years. After a description of the clock
ensemble, comprising three fountains, FO1, FO2, and FOM, and the newest
developments, we review recent studies of several systematic frequency shifts.
This includes the distributed cavity phase shift, which we evaluate for the FO1
and FOM fountains, applying the techniques of our recent work on FO2. We also
report calculations of the microwave lensing frequency shift for the three
fountains, review the status of the blackbody radiation shift, and summarize
recent experimental work to control microwave leakage and spurious phase
perturbations. We give current accuracy budgets. We also describe several
applications in time and frequency metrology: fountain comparisons,
calibrations of the international atomic time, secondary representation of the
SI second based on the 87Rb hyperfine frequency, absolute measurements of
optical frequencies, tests of the T2L2 satellite laser link, and review
fundamental physics applications of the LNE-SYRTE fountain ensemble. Finally,
we give a summary of the tests of the PHARAO cold atom space clock performed
using the FOM transportable fountain.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, 5 tables, 126 reference
Suppression and enhancement of impurity scattering in a Bose-Einstein condensate
Impurity atoms propagating at variable velocities through a trapped
Bose-Einstein condensate were produced using a stimulated Raman transition. The
redistribution of momentum by collisions between the impurity atoms and the
stationary condensate was observed in a time-of-flight analysis. The
collisional cross section was dramatically reduced when the velocity of the
impurities was reduced below the speed of sound of the condensate, in agreement
with the Landau criterion for superfluidity. For large numbers of impurity
atoms, we observed an enhancement of atomic collisions due to bosonic
stimulation. This enhancement is analogous to optical superradiance.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Cold Collision Frequency Shift of the 1S-2S Transition in Hydrogen
We have observed the cold collision frequency shift of the 1S-2S transition
in trapped spin-polarized atomic hydrogen. We find , where is the sample density. From this
we derive the 1S-2S s-wave triplet scattering length, nm,
which is in fair agreement with a recent calculation. The shift provides a
valuable probe of the distribution of densities in a trapped sample.Comment: Accepted for publication in PRL, 9 pages, 4 PostScript figures,
ReVTeX. Updated connection of our measurement to theoretical wor
Slowing and cooling molecules and neutral atoms by time-varying electric field gradients
A method of slowing, accelerating, cooling, and bunching molecules and
neutral atoms using time-varying electric field gradients is demonstrated with
cesium atoms in a fountain. The effects are measured and found to be in
agreement with calculation. Time-varying electric field gradient slowing and
cooling is applicable to atoms that have large dipole polarizabilities,
including atoms that are not amenable to laser slowing and cooling, to Rydberg
atoms, and to molecules, especially polar molecules with large electric dipole
moments. The possible applications of this method include slowing and cooling
thermal beams of atoms and molecules, launching cold atoms from a trap into a
fountain, and measuring atomic dipole polarizabilities.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures. Scheduled for publication in Nov. 1 Phys. Rev.
Evaluating and Minimizing Distributed Cavity Phase Errors in Atomic Clocks
We perform 3D finite element calculations of the fields in microwave cavities
and analyze the distributed cavity phase errors of atomic clocks that they
produce. The fields of cylindrical cavities are treated as an azimuthal Fourier
series. Each of the lowest components produces clock errors with unique
characteristics that must be assessed to establish a clock's accuracy. We
describe the errors and how to evaluate them. We prove that sharp structures in
the cavity do not produce large frequency errors, even at moderately high
powers, provided the atomic density varies slowly. We model the amplitude and
phase imbalances of the feeds. For larger couplings, these can lead to
increased phase errors. We show that phase imbalances produce a novel
distributed cavity phase error that depends on the cavity detuning. We also
design improved cavities by optimizing the geometry and tuning the mode
spectrum so that there are negligible phase variations, allowing this source of
systematic error to be dramatically reduced.Comment: To appear in Metrologi
1S-2S Spectrum of a Hydrogen Bose-Einstein Condensate
We calculate the two-photon 1S-2S spectrum of an atomic hydrogen
Bose-Einstein condensate in the regime where the cold collision frequency shift
dominates the lineshape. WKB and static phase approximations are made to find
the intensities for transitions from the condensate to motional eigenstates for
2S atoms. The excited state wave functions are found using a mean field
potential which includes the effects of collisions with condensate atoms.
Results agree well with experimental data. This formalism can be used to find
condensate spectra for a wide range of excitation schemes.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure
Collective dynamics of internal states in a Bose gas
Theory for the Rabi and internal Josephson effects in an interacting Bose gas
in the cold collision regime is presented. By using microscopic transport
equation for the density matrix the problem is mapped onto a problem of
precession of two coupled classical spins. In the absence of an external
excitation field our results agree with the theory for the density induced
frequency shifts in atomic clocks. In the presence of the external field, the
internal Josephson effect takes place in a condensed Bose gas as well as in a
non-condensed gas. The crossover from Rabi oscillations to the Josephson
oscillations as a function of interaction strength is studied in detail.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figure
Cold atom Clocks and Applications
This paper describes advances in microwave frequency standards using
laser-cooled atoms at BNM-SYRTE. First, recent improvements of the Cs
and Rb atomic fountains are described. Thanks to the routine use of a
cryogenic sapphire oscillator as an ultra-stable local frequency reference, a
fountain frequency instability of where
is the measurement time in seconds is measured. The second advance is a
powerful method to control the frequency shift due to cold collisions. These
two advances lead to a frequency stability of at 7\times 10^{-16}^{87}^{133}$Cs fountains.
Finally we give an update on the cold atom space clock PHARAO developed in
collaboration with CNES. This clock is one of the main instruments of the
ACES/ESA mission which is scheduled to fly on board the International Space
Station in 2008, enabling a new generation of relativity tests.Comment: 30 pages, 11 figure
Coherence of Spin-Polarized Fermions Interacting with a Clock Laser in a Stark-Shift-Free Optical Lattice
We investigated the coherence of spin-polarized ^{87}Sr atoms trapped in a
light-shift-free one-dimensional optical lattice during their interaction with
a clock laser on the ^1S_0-^3P_0 transition. Collapses and revivals appeared
for more than 50 Rabi cycles, attributed to the thermal distribution of
discrete vibrational states in the lattice potential. The population
oscillation in the clock states lasted more than 1s, demonstrating high
immunity from decoherence. This long atomic coherence suggests the feasibility
of Pauli blocking of collisions in optical clock excitation.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure