dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaAtom interferometry measurement of the electric polarizability of lithium
| Authors | Alain Miffre, Marion Jacquey, Matthias Büchner, Gérard Trénec, Jacques Vigué |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0507279 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0507279 |
| DOI | 10.1140/epjd/e2006-00015-5 |
Abstract
Using an atom interferometer, we have measured the static electric polarizability of $^7$Li $\alpha =(24.33 \pm 0.16)\times10^{-30} $ m$^3$ $= 164.19\pm 1.08 $ atomic units with a 0.66% uncertainty. Our experiment, which is similar to an experiment done on sodium in 1995 by D. Pritchard and co-workers, consists in applying an electric field on one of the two interfering beams and measuring the resulting phase-shift. With respect to D. Pritchard's experiment, we have made several improvements which are described in detail in this paper: the capacitor design is such that the electric field can be calculated analytically; the phase sensitivity of our interferometer is substantially better, near 16 mrad/$\sqrt{Hz}$; finally our interferometer is species selective it so that impurities present in our atomic beam (other alkali atoms or lithium dimers) do not perturb our measurement. The extreme sensitivity of atom interferometry is well illustrated by our experiment: our measurement amounts to measuring a slight increase $\Delta v$ of the atom velocity $v$ when it enters the electric field region and our present sensitivity is sufficient to detect a variation $\Delta v/v \approx 6 \times 10^{-13}$.
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"abstract": "Using an atom interferometer, we have measured the static electric\npolarizability of $^7$Li $\\alpha =(24.33 \\pm 0.16)\\times10^{-30} $ m$^3$ $=\n164.19\\pm 1.08 $ atomic units with a 0.66% uncertainty. Our experiment, which\nis similar to an experiment done on sodium in 1995 by D. Pritchard and\nco-workers, consists in applying an electric field on one of the two\ninterfering beams and measuring the resulting phase-shift. With respect to D.\nPritchard\u0027s experiment, we have made several improvements which are described\nin detail in this paper: the capacitor design is such that the electric field\ncan be calculated analytically; the phase sensitivity of our interferometer is\nsubstantially better, near 16 mrad/$\\sqrt{Hz}$; finally our interferometer is\nspecies selective it so that impurities present in our atomic beam (other\nalkali atoms or lithium dimers) do not perturb our measurement. The extreme\nsensitivity of atom interferometry is well illustrated by our experiment: our\nmeasurement amounts to measuring a slight increase $\\Delta v$ of the atom\nvelocity $v$ when it enters the electric field region and our present\nsensitivity is sufficient to detect a variation $\\Delta v/v \\approx 6 \\times\n10^{-13}$.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0507279",
"authors": [
"Alain Miffre",
"Marion Jacquey",
"Matthias B\u00fcchner",
"G\u00e9rard Tr\u00e9nec",
"Jacques Vigu\u00e9"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1140/epjd/e2006-00015-5",
"title": "Atom interferometry measurement of the electric polarizability of lithium",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0507279"
},
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