“Towards Precision Measurements with Long-Baseline Clock Atom Interferometry”
Clock atom interferometry is an emerging tool in precision measurements and fundamental physics tests. The use of narrow optical clock transitions permits long-baseline sensors beyond the table-top scale and exceptionally efficient atom optics. The MAGIS-100 detector currently under construction at Fermilab is the first instrument in this new class of devices — a 100m-baseline ultralight dark matter sensor and prototype gravitational wave detector. In this talk, I will present the key features of this sensor, as well as a 10m prototype for MAGIS-100 that is about to be completed at Stanford University. I will focus on modular design of the interferometer, with a novel magnetic shield that screens the earth’s field over the entire length of the apparatus, and on innovative strategies to transport ultracold atoms over large distances using optical lattices. Additionally, I will discuss pulse efficiency errors in clock atom optics and show that they can support a sensitivity enhancement of 10^4 through large momentum transfer.
Host: Jiaxiang Wang