Absolute and ratio measurements of the polarizability of Na, K, and Rb with an atom interferometer

作者：Holmgren William F^*; Revelle Melissa C; Lonij Vincent P A; Cronin Alexander D

来源：Physical Review A, 2010, 81(5): 053607.

DOI：10.1103/PhysRevA.81.053607

We measured the ground-state electric-dipole polarizability of sodium, potassium, and rubidium using a Mach-Zehnder atom interferometer with an electric-field gradient. We find alpha(Na) = 24.11(2)(stat)(18)(sys) x 10(-24)cm(3), alpha(K) = 43.06(14)(33), and alpha(Rb) = 47.24(12)(42). Since these measurements were all performed in the same apparatus and subject to the same systematic errors, we can present polarizability ratios with 0.3% uncertainty. We find alpha(Rb)/alpha(Na) = 1.959(5), alpha(K)/alpha(Na) = 1.786(6), and alpha(Rb)/alpha(K) = 1.097(5). We combine our ratio measurements with the higher-precision measurement of sodium polarizability by Ekstrom et al. [Phys. Rev. A 51, 3883 (1995)] to find alpha(K) = 43.06(21) and alpha(Rb) = 47.24(21).

• 出版日期2010-5