The
long-term vision of the TAIOL project is to develop a novel class of
quantum sensors based on trapped atom interferometry with performances
that will overcome state of the art, and to extend their range of
operation for
high precision measurements in applied and fundamental physics.
In
such sensors, atoms are split into a quantum
superposition of two spatially separated states in the presence of an
external force. The
resulting difference in potential energy between the two spatial states
leads to
a differential phase evolution, which is read out by recombining them
after some interrogation time, thus creating an atomic interferometer.
In this
measurement scheme, the sensitivity in the force measurement increases
linearly
with the spatial separation and the interrogation time. The use of
trapped atoms
allows here for reaching very long interrogation times, of up to
several
seconds, without having to increase the size of the physical package.
This is a
key advantage with respect to sensors based on freely falling atoms,
for
which such long interrogation times would imply free fall distances of
tens of
meters, which allows to envision the development of very compact
sensors. In
addition, it enables to perform local measurements of external fields
with very
high spatial resolution, of less than a micrometer.
The aim of TAIOL is to push the
performance of sensors based on atom
interferometry, using ultracold atoms confined in optical lattices,
well beyond the levels reached by the few proof-of-principle
experiments that have explored so far guided and
trapped architectures. For that purpose, innovative approaches and
methods will be
explored for separating split atomic samples further apart, from tens
of micrometers
to millimeters, while maintaining the quantum coherence, and for taming
harmful effects related to the interactions between the trapped atoms,
by
eithercontrolling the strength of these interactions or using novel
sources
of ultra-cold atoms.
The project outputs will open new possibilities for a wide range of
applications, such as inertial sensing, inertial
navigation, gravity field mapping, physical laws testing, surface
interactions, with the perspective of future industrial implementations.
The
TAIOL project
acknowledges support from
the QuantERA
ERA-NET Cofund in Quantum Technologies programme
Webmaster:
Franck Pereira
dos Santos (franck.pereira@obspm.fr),
last modification: 24/05/2018