Abstract
An atom interferometer reaches a high enough sensitivity to measure the ground-state diamagnetism of single atoms.
Highlights
Diamagnetism is a fundamental effect in all atoms and molecules, but it is often dwarfed by larger paramagnetic contributions to the susceptibility [1]
We report the first measurement of ground-state diamagnetism of isolated neutral atoms in an atomic beam
The observed diamagnetic susceptibilities of −5.8 Æ 0.2 Æ 0.4 × 10−9 m3=kg for barium and −7.0 Æ 0.3 Æ 0.7 × 10−9 m3=kg for strontium are in good agreement with the theoretical values and correspond to a measured force on the order of 10−26 N
Summary
Diamagnetism is a fundamental effect in all atoms and molecules, but it is often dwarfed by larger paramagnetic contributions to the susceptibility [1]. While the bulk paramagnetic susceptibilities have been measured [16], the ground-state atomic susceptibilities of barium and strontium have not been experimentally accessible until now. We report on a new technique to measure singleparticle magnetic susceptibilities via fringe deflection in a matter-wave interferometer [18]. [29], the extremely low sensitivity of strontium to magnetic field gradients was demonstrated, the sensitivity of this particular experiment was about 3 times too low to observe the diamagnetic contribution. We measure this small diamagnetic term for strontium as well as for barium, which shares many of the appealing aspects for precision measurements
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