Motional dephasing of atomic clock spin waves in an optical lattice

Abstract

In a cold atomic ensemble the weak Raman scattering of an incident laser beam writes a spin-wave grating by transferring an atom between ground-level hyperfine states. These spin-waves serve as a basis for a quantum memory. For clock states, where magnetic dephasing is suppressed, thermal motion of the atoms across the spin-wave is the principal source of dephasing on the sub-millisecond timescale, limiting the quantum memory time achievable. An investigation of the role of the optical lattice in reducing motional dephasing is presented, using Monte Carlo simulations to study the influence of ensemble temperature, trap depth and differential ac Stark shifts in the case of rubidium.