Universal atom interferometer simulation of elastic scattering processes

verfasst von
Florian Fitzek, Jan Niclas Siemß, Stefan Seckmeyer, Holger Ahlers, Ernst M. Rasel, Klemens Hammerer, Naceur Gaaloul
Abstract

In this article, we introduce a universal simulation framework covering all regimes of matter-wave light-pulse elastic scattering. Applied to atom interferometry as a study case, this simulator solves the atom-light diffraction problem in the elastic case, i.e., when the internal state of the atoms remains unchanged. Taking this perspective, the light-pulse beam splitting is interpreted as a space and time-dependent external potential. In a shift from the usual approach based on a system of momentum-space ordinary differential equations, our position-space treatment is flexible and scales favourably for realistic cases where the light fields have an arbitrary complex spatial behaviour rather than being mere plane waves. Moreover, the solver architecture we developed is effortlessly extended to the problem class of trapped and interacting geometries, which has no simple formulation in the usual framework of momentum-space ordinary differential equations. We check the validity of our model by revisiting several case studies relevant to the precision atom interferometry community. We retrieve analytical solutions when they exist and extend the analysis to more complex parameter ranges in a cross-regime fashion. The flexibility of the approach, the insight it gives, its numerical scalability and accuracy make it an exquisite tool to design, understand and quantitatively analyse metrology-oriented matter-wave interferometry experiments.

Organisationseinheit(en)
Institut für Quantenoptik
Institut für Theoretische Physik
QuantumFrontiers
SFB 1227: Designte Quantenzustände der Materie (DQ-mat)
Typ
Artikel
Journal
Scientific Reports
Band
10
ISSN
2045-2322
Publikationsdatum
17.12.2020
Publikationsstatus
Veröffentlicht
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Allgemein
Elektronische Version(en)
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78859-1 (Zugang: Offen)
https://doi.org/10.15488/10752 (Zugang: Offen)