Quantum Transport Approach to Matter Wave Interferometry

Matter wave manipulation with periodic optical potentials is the underlying control mechanism for key components of atom interferometers. The continued refinement of these components is important to optimize their use for tests of fundamental physics and for various sensing applications such as accelerometry. The dynamics of matter wavefunctions in periodic optical potentials can be described in analogy to that of electrons in crystals, the subject of quantum transport in solid state physics. We will describe the gainful use of such a quantum transport approach to matter wave interferometry through a series of experimental work, including an understanding and quantification of the diffraction phase systematic effect existing in many interferometer architectures, a proposal and demonstration of “magic” depth optical lattices for interferometer phase stability against lattice intensity noise, and an in-lattice multi-path Stuckelberg interferometer to investigate Bloch oscillation phases relevant to next-generation large-momentum-transfer atom interferometric sensors.