J. Morley, B. J. Hiley, R. L. Flack and P. F. Barker
University College London, UK
Weak Measurements of Atomic Momentum
Presentation
Abstract
There is considerable interest in the use of weak measurements to explore fundamental quantum processes and for quantum metrology. In this talk I will describe our experiments which aim to make a weak measurement of atomic momentum using a cold-atom, matter-wave interferometer. I will describe our matter-wave interferometer that uses laser cooled argon atoms to perform these measurements. In this scheme, cold atoms are first produced in a magneto-optical trap before radiation pressure is utilised to form a slow atomic beam that is directed through an optical grating. I will describe how we will use this system to reconstruct the atomic trajectories within the interferometer where the pointer that weakly couples to momentum is the spin of the 5 Zeeman states of the laser-cooled metastable (4S[3/2]2) argon atoms.
