Physical Review X (Jan 2020)

Quantum-Assisted Measurement of Atomic Diamagnetism

  • Yaakov Y. Fein,
  • Armin Shayeghi,
  • Lukas Mairhofer,
  • Filip Kiałka,
  • Philipp Rieser,
  • Philipp Geyer,
  • Stefan Gerlich,
  • Markus Arndt

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.10.011014
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 1
p. 011014

Abstract

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We report the first measurement of ground-state diamagnetism of isolated neutral atoms in an atomic beam. We realize this measurement using magnetic deflection of fringes in a long-baseline matter-wave interferometer. The observed diamagnetic susceptibilities of −5.8±0.2±0.4×10^{−9} m^{3}/kg for barium and −7.0±0.3±0.7×10^{−9} m^{3}/kg for strontium are in good agreement with the theoretical values and correspond to a measured force on the order of 10^{−26} N. The high force sensitivity also allows us to observe the isotope dependence of the interference visibility due to the nuclear permanent magnetic moment, thereby demonstrating a new method for neutral isotope selection. The universality of the technique allows the magnetism of a wide range of atoms and molecules to be studied in the gas phase.