New Applications for Atom and Electron Interferometry using Material Gratings

原子光学领域利用原子作为波传播的事实。 原子波的相位和振幅将用原子干涉仪进行研究，以便精确测量几种原子性质。 原子波的相移，由于附近的表面将被测量，以确定原子表面货车范德华相互作用强度。 将观察原子对电场的响应，以报告几个不同原子的原子极化率。 这两个实验都使用了一个分离路径马赫-曾德尔原子干涉仪，它是用纳米结构光栅构建的。 由于纳米光栅作为不同类型原子的分束器，它们允许我们比较几种不同原子的性质。 纳米结构本身的进一步表征将通过一种新型的电子干涉仪来完成，该干涉仪也使用纳米制造的光栅作为分束器。 纳米光栅在电子和原子干涉测量中的应用在几个方向上扩展了量子物理学的前沿。 测量货车德瓦耳斯相互作用强度将测试理论模型，使用量子电动力学来预测位于多层表面1至50纳米的原子的势能。 测量表面附近的原子波动力学也将帮助我们设计紧凑的原子芯片干涉仪，可能很快成为最先进的地球物理传感器，如陀螺仪。 高精度的原子极化率测量作为测试原子结构模型的基准，这些模型也需要将原子宇称违反实验解释为粒子物理学中标准模型的测试。 因此，纳米光栅实验将扩展物质波干涉测量的应用，以测试量子电动力学，物理化学和基础物理学的基础理论。这项工作推动了原子光学科学的发展，并开创了纳米技术的新应用。 这项工作的更广泛的影响还包括原子，分子和光学物理研究的研究生和本科生培训。

The field of atom optics utilizes the fact that atoms propagate as waves. The phase and amplitude of atom waves will be studied with an atom interferometer in order to precisely measure several atomic properties. The atom wave phase shift due to nearby surfaces will be measured to determine atom-surface van der Waals interaction strengths. The atomic response to an electric field will be observed in order to report the atomic polarizability of several different atoms. Both of these experiments use a separated-path Mach-Zehnder atom interferometer that is built with nano-structured gratings. Because the nano-gratings serve as beam splitters for different types of atoms, they allow us to compare the properties of several different atoms. Further characterization of the nanostructures themselves will be accomplished with a new type of electron interferometer that also uses nanofabricated gratings as beam splitters. The use of nano-gratings for both electron and atom interferometry expands the frontiers of quantum physics in several directions. Measurements of van der Waals interaction strengths will test theoretical models that use quantum electrodynamics to predict the potential energy for atoms located 1 to 50 nanometers from multi-layered surfaces. Measurements of atom wave dynamics near surfaces will also help us design compact atom-chip interferometers that may soon become state-of-the art geophysical sensors such as gyroscopes. High precision atomic polarizability measurements serve as a benchmark to test models of atomic structure that are also needed to interpret atomic parity violation experiments as a test of the standard model in particle physics. Thus, experiments with nano-gratings will extend applications of matter-wave interferometry in order to test basic theories in quantum electrodynamics, physical chemistry, and fundamental physics. This work advances the science of Atom Optics and pioneers new applications for nanotechnology. The broader impact of this work also includes both graduate and undergraduate training in atomic, molecular, and optical physics research.