Description
Towards a levitated atom interferometer with potassium Matthias Kolb*a, Thomas Weigner a, Samuel Rind a, Thomas Spielauer a, Philipp Haslinger a a Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology, Atominstitut, TU Wien, Stadionallee 2, 1020 Vienna, Austria * matthias.kolb@tuwien.ac.at We develop a setup suitable for cavity-enhanced levitated atom interferometry, which is capable of very long interaction times [1, 2]. By holding atoms in a lattice, short- ranging potentials can be measured, enabling high precision experiments allowing to search for new physics and light induced interactions [3–5]. The small hyperfine splittings simplify the generation of laser frequencies needed for cooling the bosonic isotopes 39K and 41K from a single laser using acousto-optic modulators. The experiment consists of a transfer chamber separated by a valve to a science chamber, which facilitates the insertion of samples, e.g. test masses to measure their effect on the potassium atoms, but also allows for inserting electron sources to perform experiments to realize coherent interactions between atoms and electrons [6].
