Ultracold Ramsey Interferometry for Atom Chip Sensors and EM Field Imaging

Ultracold atoms are advantageous in that they allow for near-exact manipulation of their internal and external quantum states without the rapid thermal motion exhibited by room-temperature atoms. As such, we can interact with them and use them as exquisite sensors to make precision measurements of physical quantities. More specifically, we are working towards using ultracold rubidium-87 atoms to create a trapped atom interferometer. The first step in the process is to make a Ramsey interferometer with laser-cooled atoms. Then, we will do this on an atom chip, where we will spatially separate the spin states using a microwave lattice. A large component of this process is the construction of a microwave amplifier and control system which allows us to tune and amplify the necessary microwave signals. In this talk, I present progress on both our Ramsey interferometry and the hardware that goes into generating stable, high-power microwaves. We anticipate that this approach will allow us to make high-precision measurements of electric, magnetic, and gravitational fields. Additionally, we anticipate using this approach to image laser beams and possibly electron beams via the Stark shift.