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arXiv · 2512.19859

An atom chip interferometer

B. Wirtschafter·C. I. Westbrook·M. Dupont-Nivet
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Abstract

We have realized an interferometer using a thermal cloud of magnetically trapped rubidium 87 atoms on a chip. The interferometer resembles a Ramsey interferometer with a state selective spatial splitting of the two internal states as proposed in [M. Ammar, and al., Phys. Rev. A, 91, 053623]. The splitting is effected by microwave fields from two on-chip waveguides while the atoms remain magnetically trapped. The inferred maximum separation is $1.2\pm 0.1~\mu$m. We observe interference fringes with a contrast around 8\% limited by velocity difference of the two interferometer states when we close the interferometer. We develop a model describing this contrast decay.

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B. Wirtschafter, C. I. Westbrook, M. Dupont-Nivet. 2025-12-22. An atom chip interferometer. https://doi.org/10.1103/vq33-77zc

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