Sub-shot-noise phase sensitivity with a Bose-Einstein condensate Mach-Zehnder interferometer -: art. no. 043612

Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC), with their coherence properties, have attracted wide interest for their possible application to ultraprecise interferometry and ultraweak force sensors. Since condensates, unlike photons, are interacting, they may permit the realization of specific quantum states needed as input of an interferometer to approach the Heisenberg limit, the supposed lower bound to precision phase measurements. To this end, we study the sensitivity to external weak perturbations of a representative matter-wave Mach-Zehnder interferometer whose input are two Bose-Einstein condensates created by splitting a single condensate in two parts. The interferometric phase sensitivity depends on the specific quantum state created with the two condensates, and, therefore, on the time scale of the splitting process. We identify three different regimes, characterized by a phase sensitivity Delta theta scaling with the total number of condensate particles N as (i) the standard quantum limit Delta theta similar to 1/N-1/2, (ii) the sub shot-noise Delta theta similar to 1/N-3/4, and the (iii) the Heisenberg limit Delta theta similar to 1/N. However, in a realistic dynamical BEC splitting, the 1/N limit requires a long adiabaticity time scale, which is hardly reachable experimentally. On the other hand, the sub-shot-noise sensitivity Delta theta similar to 1/N-3/4 can be reached in a realistic experimental setting. We also show that the 1/N-3/4 scaling is a rigorous upper bound in the limit N ->infinity, while keeping constant all different parameters of the bosonic Mach-Zehnder interferometer.