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Updated: May 14, 2026

Implementation of a Reference Interferometer for Nanodetection
Published on: April 26, 2014
Observation of free-space single-atom matter wave interference
L P Parazzoli1, A M Hankin, G W Biedermann
1Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185, USA.
Abstract:
We observe matter wave interference of a single cesium atom in free fall. The interferometer is an absolute sensor of acceleration and we show that this technique is sensitive to forces at the level of 3.2×10(-27) N with a spatial resolution at the micron scale. We observe the build up of the interference pattern one atom at a time in a free-space interferometer where the mean path separation extends far beyond the coherence length of the atom. Using the coherence length of the atom wave packet as a metric, we directly probe the velocity distribution and measure the temperature of a single atom in free fall.
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