PSAS 2012
International Conference on Precision Physics
of Simple Atomic Systems 2012
Eltville, Germany -
Information

Title:	Mr.
Family Name:	Pelle
First Name:	Bruno
Gender:	male
E-Mail:	bruno.pelleobspm.fr
Affiliation for Badge:	Observatoire de Paris - SYRTE
Institute:
Address (Street):	61, avenue de l'Observatoire
Postal Code, City:	75014, Paris
Country:	France
Phone:	+33 6 61 47 43 53
Fax:
Arrival Date:	June 10
Departure Date:	June 15
Excursion with Conference Dinner:	Selected
Payment:	Bank transfer to GSI
Title:	A trapped atom interferometer for the measurement of short range forces
Abstract:	I will present the status of an experiment, which aims at performing precise measurements of the interaction forces between an atom and a macroscopic surface, for surface separations from 0.2 µm to 10 µm, where QED effects are predominant. In our experimental apparatus, we realize a trapped atom interferometer in a vertical optical lattice. More precisely, 87Rb atoms are trapped in a bichromatic optical trap: a blue detuned optical lattice at 532 nm and transversally confined by a red detuned fiber laser at 1064 nm. Stimulated Raman transitions are used to induce tunnelling into adjacent wells, allowing us to perform spectroscopy of Wannier-Stark states or to create thanks to a sequence of two such pulses a Ramsey-type interferometer. Currently, our experiment is performed far from the surface of interest, which is set by the retroreflecting mirror of the standing wave. In that case, our interferometer is sensitive to differences in gravitational energies, leading us on the measurement of g to study the systematic effects in order to reach the required sensitivity. We gratefully acknowledge support by European Commission (iSense project, FET-Open grant number: 250072), Ville de Paris ("Emergence(s)" program) and IFRAF.

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