Investigating the feasibility of a trapped atom interferometer with movable traps

Atom interferometers can be used to obtain information about accelerations and fields, whether this may be in the investigation of fundamental aspects of physics, such as measuring fundamental constants or testing gravity, or as part of a measurement device, such as an accelerometer [1,2,3]. Achieving adequate coherence times remains a priority, and this can be realized by holding the atoms in a trap as an alternative to increasing their free fall time [1]. We are developing a concept for such a trapped atom interferometer, with tweezer traps movable in one or more dimensions, as such movement is expected to award us with more spatial and temporal information than with a stationary trap. In order to quantitatively investigate certain aspects related to the feasibility of experimentally realizing such a setup, we aim to understand some effects of noise from a tweezer’s laser intensity fluctuations. Modeling a tweezer trap as a simple harmonic oscillator, we aim to understand how the coherence can be affected in the presence of such noise, while specifically looking at the effects of any harmonic oscillator transitions that could arise.

[1] V. Xu, M. Jaffe, C. D. Panda, S. L. Kristensen, L. W. Clark, and H. Müller, Probing gravity by holding atoms for 20 seconds, Science 366, 745 (2019).

[2] D. Carney, H. Müller, and J. M. Taylor, Using an Atom Interferometer to Infer Gravitational Entanglement Generation, PRX Quantum 2, 030330 (2021).

[3] B. M. Anderson, J. M. Taylor, and V. M. Galitski, Interferometry with synthetic gauge fields, Phys. Rev. A 83, 031602 (2011).