Quantum-Assisted Measurement of Atomic Diamagnetism

Author(s)
Yaakov Y. Fein, Armin Shayeghi, Lukas Mairhofer, Filip Kiałka, Philipp Rieser, Philipp Geyer, Stefan Gerlich, Markus Arndt
Abstract

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  m3/kg for barium and −7.0±0.3±0.7×10−9  m3/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.

Organisation(s)
Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information
Journal
Physical Review X
Volume
10
No. of pages
7
ISSN
2160-3308
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.10.011014
Publication date
01-2020
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103025 Quantum mechanics, 103017 Magnetism
Keywords
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/2349f74d-33c3-49be-9993-6782711853db