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Coherent manipulation of Bose–Einstein condensates with state-dependent microwave potentials on an atom chip

Nature Physics volume 5, pages 592–597 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Entanglement-based technologies, such as quantum information processing, quantum simulations and quantum-enhanced metrology, have the potential to revolutionize our way of computing and measuring, and help clarify the puzzling concept of entanglement itself. Ultracold atoms on atom chips are attractive for their implementation, as they provide control over quantum systems in compact, robust and scalable set-ups. An important tool in this system is a potential depending on the internal atomic state. Coherent dynamics in such a potential combined with collisional interactions enables entanglement generation both for individual atoms and ensembles. Here, we demonstrate coherent manipulation of Bose-condensed atoms in a state-dependent potential, generated with microwave near-fields on an atom chip. We reversibly entangle atomic internal and motional states, realizing a trapped-atom interferometer with internal-state labelling. Our system provides control over collisions in mesoscopic condensates, paving the way to on-chip generation of many-particle entanglement and quantum-enhanced metrology with spin-squeezed states.

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Figure 1: Coherent internal-state manipulation and generation of state-dependent microwave potentials.
Figure 2: Atom chip with microwave CPWs.
Figure 3: State-selective splitting of the BEC.
Figure 4: Dynamical splitting and recombination scheme used for BEC interferometry.
Figure 5: Periodic recurrences of Ramsey interference contrast in the BEC interferometer.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to J. P. Kotthaus and his group for cleanroom access and advice on chip fabrication; F. Peretti, G. Csaba, F. J. Schmückle and F. Reinhardt for microwave simulations and helpful discussions on microwave design; and A. Sinatra and Y. Li for helpful discussions on spin squeezing. We thank S. Camerer, D. Hunger and A. Sinatra for careful reading of the manuscript. We acknowledge support of the Nanosystems Initiative Munich.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik und Fakultät für Physik der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, 80799 München, Germany

    Pascal Böhi, Max F. Riedel, Johannes Hoffrogge, Theodor W. Hänsch & Philipp Treutlein

  2. Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, ENS/UPMC-Paris 6/CNRS, 24 rue Lhomond, F-75005 Paris, France

    Jakob Reichel

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  1. Pascal Böhi
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Contributions

P.T. and J.R. conceived the experiment. P.T. worked out the theory. P.B., M.F.R., J.H. and P.T. designed and built the experiment. P.B., M.F.R. and P.T. collected and analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. P.T. and T.W.H. supervised the experiment. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Philipp Treutlein.

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Böhi, P., Riedel, M., Hoffrogge, J. et al. Coherent manipulation of Bose–Einstein condensates with state-dependent microwave potentials on an atom chip. Nature Phys 5, 592–597 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1329

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