Ultrasensitive Measurements of Forces Using Laser-Cooled Atoms

精确了解支配和塑造我们宇宙的基本力量不仅对基础科学至关重要，对技术突破也是至关重要的。这项提议为一项广泛的研究计划寻求业务资金，该计划利用冷原子对各种基本力量进行精确测量。该提议的主要科学目标是：精确测量重力加速度g，精确测量电磁力强度(精细结构常数)和精确测量原子的磁性(g因子比)。这些实验最近达到了基准，表明高撞击精度的研究在不久的将来是可能实现的。特别是，将开发一种独特的冷原子干涉仪(AI)来测量g。这将使目前125ppb的测量精度达到1ppb的国际竞争水平。这一倡议得到了一家工业合作伙伴的支持，该合作伙伴是商业重力仪的领先制造商，商业重力仪是一种测量g的设备，用于石油和矿产勘探、地震监测和潮汐图校正等广泛应用。同样的人工智能最近展示了可与广为人知的拉曼人工智能相媲美的测量时间尺度，并实现了对原子反冲频率的测量精度为37 ppb，这个量与原子精细结构常数有关，原子精细结构常数是定义光-物质相互作用强度的耦合参数。我们建议减少系统影响，实现~1 ppb的精度。申请人的团队最近对一类特殊的磁相互作用进行了最敏感的测量。通过改进实验，我们提出了进一步提高精度和避免系统影响的建议。主要商业和技术成果包括：1)实现了基于申请人开发的基于自动锁定激光的新一代重力仪和校准商业重力仪的新技术；2)开发了加拿大第一个基于Rb的原子钟；3)开发了作为激光雷达发射器的自动锁定激光，用于污染监测和行星大气探测。

Precise knowledge of the basic forces that govern and shape our universe is of paramount importance not only for fundamental science, but also for technological breakthroughs. This proposal seeks operational funding for a broad research program utilizing cold atoms for the precision measurements of a variety of basic forces. The main scientific goals of the proposal are: precision measurement of the gravitational acceleration g, precision measurement of the strength of the electromagnetic force (the fine-structure constant) and the precision measurement of the magnetic properties of atoms (g-factor ratios). These experiments have recently achieved benchmarks that suggest that high impact precision studies are realizable in the near future. In particular, a unique, cold atom interferometer (AI) will be developed for measurements of g. This will enable the current measurement precision of 125 parts per billion (ppb) to reach internationally competitive levels of 1 ppb. This initiative is supported by an industrial partner who is the leading manufacturer of commercial gravimeters, devices that measure g for widespread applications such as oil and mineral prospecting, seismic monitoring and correction of tidal charts. The same AI recently demonstrated measurement time scales comparable to the widely known Raman AIs and realized a precision of 37 ppb in measurements of the atomic recoil frequency, a quantity that is related to the atomic fine-structure constant, a coupling parameter that defines the strength of light-matter interactions. We propose to reduce systematic effects and realize a precision of ~1 ppb. The applicant's group has recently made the most sensitive measurement of a particular class of magnetic interactions. Using a refined experiment we propose to further improve the precision and avoid systematic effects. The main commercial and technological outcomes include: 1) Realization of a new generation of gravimeters based on auto-locked lasers developed by the applicant and new techniques for calibrating commercial gravimeters 2) Development of Canada's first rubidium-based atomic clock 3) Development of auto-locked lasers as LIDAR transmitters for pollution monitoring and exploration of planetary atmospheres.