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Title

Asymmetric double-well potential for single-atom interferometry

Author(s)

Sidorov, A. I.;  Dalton, B. J.;  Whitlock, S. M.;  Scharnberg, F.

Abstract

We consider the evolution of a single-atom wave function in a time-dependent double-well interferometer in the presence of a spatially asymmetric potential. We examine a case where a single trapping potential is split into an asymmetric double well and then recombined again. The interferometer involves a measurement of the first excited state population as a sensitive measure of the asymmetric potential. Based on a two-mode approximation a Bloch vector model provides a simple and satisfactory description of the dynamical evolution. We discuss the roles of adiabaticity and asymmetry in the double-well interferometer. The Bloch model allows us to account for the effects of asymmetry on the excited state population throughout the interferometric process and to choose the appropriate splitting, holding, and recombination periods in order to maximize the output signal. We also compare the outcomes of the Bloch vector model with the results of numerical simulations of the multistate time-dependent Schroedinger equation.

Publication type

Journal article

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Sciences. Centre for Atom Optics and Ultrafast Spectroscopy

Source

Physical Review A : Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, Vol. 74, no. 2 (2006), pp. 023612 (1-9)

Publication year

2006

Keyword(s)

Particle interferometry

Publisher

American Physical Society

ISSN

1050-2947

Publisher URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.74.023612

Copyright

Copyright © 2006 The American Physical Society. Published version of this paper reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.

Full text

Peer reviewed