Atomic Interferometer Based on Adiabatic Population Transfer

Abstract

We demonstrate an atomic interferometer based on the transfer of population between two ground states via adiabatic following using a nonabsorbing "dark" superposition state. This type of interferometer promises to be useful for precise measurement of the photon recoil energy and also for large area atomic interferometers since it allows transfer of a large number of photon recoil momenta to the atoms with high efficiency. In preliminary experiments, we have obtained a coherent transfer efficiency of 95% with transfer of photon momenta and 98.4% with no transfer of momenta. Over 140 photon momenta have been transferred coherently to the atoms.