Experimental study of the role of trap symmetry in an atom-chip interferometer above the Bose–Einstein condensation threshold

Abstract

We report the experimental study of an atom-chip interferometer using ultracold rubidium 87 atoms above the Bose–Einstein condensation threshold. The observed dependence of the contrast decay time with temperature and with the degree of symmetry of the traps during the interferometer sequence is in good agreement with theoretical predictions published in Dupont-Nivet et al (2016 New J. Phys. 18 113012). These results pave the way for precision measurements with trapped thermal atoms.

Keywords

• atomic interferometry
• ultracold thermal atoms
• contrast decay
• Ramsey interferometer