2008/01/28 by Patrick Windpassinger, Patrick J Windpassinger, Daniel Oblak +7 · 1 citation
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/10/5/053032
published as New J. Phys. 10 (2008) 053032 · 9 pages, 7 figures, updated introduction and reference list
arxiv created 2008/01/28 · openalex publication_date 2008/05/28 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Various parameters of a trapped collection of cold and ultracold atoms can be determined non-destructively by measuring the phase shift of an off-resonant probe beam, caused by the state-dependent index of refraction of the atoms. The dispersive light–atom interaction, however, gives rise to a differential light shift (ac Stark shift) between the atomic states which, for a non-uniform probe intensity distribution, causes an inhomogeneous dephasing between the atoms. In this paper, we investigate the effects of this inhomogeneous light shift in non-destructive measurement schemes in cold caesium. We interpret our experimental data on dispersively probed Rabi oscillations and Ramsey fringes in terms of a simple light shift model which is shown to describe the observed behavior well. Furthermore, we show that by using spin echo techniques, the inhomogeneous phase shift distribution between the two clock levels can be reversed.