Sequantial large momentum transfer exploiting rectangular Raman pulses

Abstract

It is proposed to use rectangular Raman pulses for the technique of sequantial large momentum transfer. It is shown that the small parameters that make it possible to use this technology for precision atom interferometry can be 40--200 times smaller than in the case of the Bragg regime. It is predicted that in the case of a non-equidistant timing of auxiliary pulses, one can observe oscillations in time of the interference picture with a period inversely proportional to the recoil frequency. Such an observation would be the first confirmation that Mach-Zehnder atom interference is a phenomenon caused by the quantization of the atomic center-of-mass motion. This effect is calculated for any shape of pulses. One can observe it in the Bragg regime as well. It is proposed to use non-continuous composite Raman pulses as auxiliary beam splitters so that the effective Rabi frequency remains unchanged for the entire process. The gravity phase of an atomic interferometer is calculated for any shape, duration, and timing of Raman pulses, including the Bragg regime. The phase corrections caused by the finite pulses' durations are also calculated for rectangular Raman pulses shape.