论文标题
斯特恩 - 格拉赫干涉原子芯片
Stern-Gerlach Interferometry with the Atom Chip
论文作者
论文摘要
自从斯特恩 - 盖拉赫(SG)实验以来,在这项邀请的评论中,我们描述了原子芯片上十年的SG干涉法。 SG效应一直是上个世纪的量子力学范式,但令人惊讶的是,很少有证据表明,原始方案的自由传播原子暴露于宏观磁体的梯度是一个完全一致的量子过程。具体而言,如几十年前所设想的那样,该方案没有实现全环SG干涉仪(SGI)。此外,一些理论研究解释了为什么这是一个巨大的挑战。在这里,我们对过去十年中的SG实验进行了评论。我们描述了几种新颖的配置,例如产生第一个SG空间干扰条纹以及第一个全环SGI实现。这些设备基于高度精确的磁场,源自原子芯片,可确保在先前的理论分析所描述的严格约束中相干操作。预计对磁性梯度的高水平控制有望促进技术应用,例如探测表面和电流以及计量学。基本应用包括探测量子理论,重力和量子力学和重力界面的基础。我们以描述未来实验的前景结尾。
In this invited review in honor of 100 years since the Stern-Gerlach (SG) experiments, we describe a decade of SG interferometry on the atom chip. The SG effect has been a paradigm of quantum mechanics throughout the last century, but there has been surprisingly little evidence that the original scheme, with freely propagating atoms exposed to gradients from macroscopic magnets, is a fully coherent quantum process. Specifically, no full-loop SG interferometer (SGI) has been realized with the scheme as envisioned decades ago. Furthermore, several theoretical studies have explained why it is a formidable challenge. Here we provide a review of our SG experiments over the last decade. We describe several novel configurations such as that giving rise to the first SG spatial interference fringes, and the first full-loop SGI realization. These devices are based on highly accurate magnetic fields, originating from an atom chip, that ensure coherent operation within strict constraints described by previous theoretical analyses. Achieving this high level of control over magnetic gradients is expected to facilitate technological applications such as probing of surfaces and currents, as well as metrology. Fundamental applications include the probing of the foundations of quantum theory, gravity, and the interface of quantum mechanics and gravity. We end with an outlook describing possible future experiments.