| Issue |
EPL
Volume 88, Number 2, October 2009
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 20002 | |
| Number of page(s) | 6 | |
| Section | General | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/88/20002 | |
| Published online | 28 October 2009 | |
Dispersive atom interferometry phase shifts due to atom-surface interactions
1
Laboratoire Collisions Agrégats Réactivité IRSAMC; Université de Toulouse-UPS and CNRS UMR 5589 F-31062 Toulouse, France, EU
2
Department of Physics, University of Arizona - Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Corresponding author: jacques.vigue@irsamc.ups-tlse.fr
Received:
25
June
2009
Accepted:
1
October
2009
We used the Toulouse atom interferometer to study how Van der Waals (VdW) interactions between atoms and surfaces cause velocity-dependent phase shifts for atomic de Broglie waves. By introducing a thin nano-grating in one branch of this interferometer, we observed a phase shift that depends on velocity to the power -0.49. This dispersion serves to measure both the strength and the position dependence of the atom-surface potential in the range from 5 to 10 nm from the surface, and it can also set new limits on non-Newtonian gravity in the 2 nm range.
PACS: 03.75.Dg – Atom and neutron interferometry / 34.50.-s – Scattering of atoms and molecules / 34.20.-b – Interatomic and intermolecular potentials and forces, potential energy surfaces for collisions
© EPLA, 2009
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