Leland Stanford Junior University

Jason M Hogan

Mark A Kasevich

David M S Johnson

Susannah M Dickerson

Sheng-wey Chiow

Alex Sugarbaker

In an atom interferometer, improved results are obtained by configuring the interferometer to have a baseline fringe pattern, in combination with spatially resolved measurements at the interferometer ports. Two aspects of this idea are provided. In the first aspect, the atoms are configured to expand from an initial point-like spatial distribution. The result is an informative correlation between atom position and interferometer phase. In the second aspect, a phase shear is applied to the atom ensemble of an atom interferometer. In both cases, spatially resolved measurements at the interferometer ports can provide enhanced interferometer performance, such as single-shot operation.

Atom interferometry having spatially resolved phase

Optical phase modulators are disposed in separate arms of an optical interferometer for forming short optical pulses. The optical phase modulators are driven by signals from an electrical nonlinear transmission line (NLTL). A time delay (typically on the order of the NLTL fall time) is introduced between the NLTL signals in the two arms of the interferometer. With this arrangement, the interferometer provides short optical pulses at its output. In one experiment, 70 ps switching was demonstrated using discrete LiNbOtraveling wave electro-optic modulators and commercially available NLTLs capable of delivering a 35 ps falling edge. A preferable approach is to integrate the NLTLs with the phase modulators, to further improve bandwidth. This fast switch can be used for various applications, such as implementing an Optical Time Division Multiplexing (OTDM) network architecture, and providing arbitrary waveform generation (AWG) capability.

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Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Jason M Hogan