IMPROVED ATOM COUNTING USING SQUEEZED LIGHT FOR ATOM INTERFEROMETRY APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Atom interferometer measurements are affected by the amount of quantum noise from the laser used to detect atoms. To improve the quantum limited sensitivity of interferometers, there needs to be a way to reduce the amount of quantum noise. Light is composed of two quadratures, where the product of the noise in each quadrature cannot be below a minimum threshold set by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. However, the noise in one quadrature can be reduced at the expense of the other. This form of light is referred to as “squeezed light.” Squeezed light can be produced using four-wave mixing (FWM). Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is an interference phenomenon that occurs when a three-level atom is driven by a coherent field that makes a non-linear medium transparent to the probing field and holds a great deal of similarities to FWM. This thesis developed a theoretical framework that describes the measurement of atomic states and associated noise when quantum light is used to drive the atom and lays the groundwork to produce squeezed light through developing an experiment to produce EIT, as well as discussing the similarities between EIT and FWM to create and further study FWM for improved atom interferometry.