Multimode trapped interferometer with noninteracting Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate a multimode interferometer comprising a Bose-Einstein condensate of ^{39}K atoms trapped in a harmonic potential, where the interatomic interaction can be canceled exploiting Feshbach resonances. Kapitza-Dirac diffraction from an optical lattice coherently splits the BEC in multiple momentum components equally spaced that form different interferometric paths, with trajectories closed by the trapping harmonic potential. We investigate two different interferometric schemes, where the recombination pulse is applied after a full or half oscillation in the confining potential. We find that the relative amplitudes of the momentum components at the interferometer output are sensitive to external forces, through the induced displacement of the harmonic potential with respect to the optical lattice. We show how to calibrate the interferometer, fully characterize its output, and discuss perspective improvements.