Clock Atom Interferometry for Precision Measurements in Fundamental Physics
Author | : Thomas Frederick Wilkason |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : |
Release | : 2022 |
Genre | : |
ISBN | : |
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Recent technological advances have enabled the development of new precision atomic sensors for tests of fundamental physics. In this thesis, I will introduce the concept of clock atom interferometry, a hybrid of atomic clocks and atom interferometry that is particularly suited for gravitational wave detection and ultralight dark matter searches. I outline the experiment we built to cool and trap strontium atoms for prototyping this concept and demonstrating our initial atom interferometric results. I will then discuss the first realization of large momentum transfer (LMT) clock atom interferometry using single-photon interactions on the strontium 689 nm transition, implementing Mach-Zehnder interferometers and gradiometers with state-of-the-art momentum separation to enhance their sensitivity. Furthermore, using amplitude modulated pulses, I demonstrate Floquet atom optics as a tool to allow symmetric evolution of two states at equal and opposite detuning and allows high pulse efficiencies greater than 99% for all detunings, in particular even when the detuning is on the order of the Rabi frequency. Applying this technique, I extend the visibility of an atom interferometer out to a record momentum transfer in excess of 400 photon momenta. I conclude by demonstrating how this technique can be further advanced to allow for 601 photon momenta of separation, as well as a discussion of the new measurement opportunities made possible with these techniques in the fields of high-precision inertial sensing and fundamental physics detection.