Matterwave Interferometry with Ions

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。离子干涉仪将是一种全新的设备，利用物质的量子波特性以前所未有的灵敏度探测电磁场。在离子干涉仪中，激光冷却的原子气体将与一对激光束相互作用，激光束将从每个原子上剥离一个电子，从而产生带正电的离子。然后，离子将通过一组由三个精确调谐的激光束组成的装置，这些激光束将分裂每个离子的量子波，将两段量子波沿着不同的路径发送，然后将两半量子波聚集在一起，使它们相互干扰。通过测量产生的干扰，就可以确定设备中存在的场。离子干涉仪的功能将类似于光学干涉仪，用于飞机的惯性导航、化学光谱特征的检测以及寻找碰撞黑洞产生的引力波。然而，离子的静电电荷会使离子干涉仪对电场和磁场敏感，这是光学干涉仪无法检测到的。这种新方法应该会产生一种设备，它可以探测到比以前任何设备小数千倍的静电场，并且具有数千倍的精度。这种精密场传感器的应用非常广泛。例如，这些装置将用于寻找与目前公认的电磁学理论的偏差，以及寻找光子可能拥有的少量以前未被发现的静止质量。电子材料的特性，如超导体和半导体，以及纳米结构，将通过使用离子来感应微小的电流，并测量固体材料外部产生的结果场来研究。此外，在实现第一台离子干涉仪的过程中所开发的技术将对其他领域产生影响。例如，慢离子束技术可以提高半导体芯片制造中离子注入的精度，该项目开发的激光冷却和光电离技术可以提高原子钟的精度。因为这项开创性的工作将在一个以优秀的本科科学教育而闻名的机构进行，并强调本科生参与研究，这个项目也将有助于培养新一代的科学家。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Ion interferometers will be a completely new type of device, utilizing the quantum-wave nature of matter to detect electromagnetic fields with unprecedented sensitivity. In an ion interferometer a laser-cooled gas of atoms will interact with a pair of laser beams which will strip an electron off of each atom to create positively charged ions. The ions will then pass through a set of three precisely tuned laser beams that will split the quantum wave of each ion, send both pieces of the wave along a different path, and then bring the two halves of the quantum wave together and cause them to interfere with each other. By measuring the resulting interference, the fields present in the apparatus can then be determined. Ion interferometers will be functionally similar to the optical interferometers used in applications such as inertial navigation of aircraft, the detection of chemical spectral signatures, and the search for gravity waves generated by colliding black holes. However, the electrostatic charge of the ions will make ion interferometers sensitive to electric and magnetic fields which optical interferometers cannot detect. This new approach should result in a device that can detect electrostatic fields thousands of times smaller and with thousands of times finer precision than any previous device.The applications of such a precise field sensor are numerous. For example, these devices will be used to search for deviations from the currently accepted theories of electromagnetism and to search for a tiny amount of previously undetected rest mass that photons of light might possess. Properties of electronic materials such as superconductors and semiconductors, as well as nano-structures will be studied by using the ions to induce minute electric currents and to measure the resulting fields generated just outside of the solid material. In addition, the technology developed in the process of realizing the first ion interferometer will have impact in other fields. For example, the slow ion beam techniques may improve the precision of ion implantation in the manufacture of semiconductor chips, and laser cooling and photo-ionization techniques developed in this project could improve the accuracy of atomic clocks. Because this pioneering work will be carried out at an institution with a reputation for excellent undergraduate science education and with an emphasis on undergraduate involvement in research, this project will also help train a new generation of scientists.