Geometric-phase atom optics and interferometry

Geometric Phase in Su(n) Interferometry

The purpose of this contribution is twofold: to review how an SU(N) transformation can be experimentally realized using optical elements, and to show how such an experimental realization can be used to investigate the cyclic evolution of a state over the manifold SU(N)/U(N-1). The bulk of the results will be presented explicitly for SU(3) (see [1] for further details) and SU(4), although it wil...

Applications of Geometric Phase in Optics

In the last fifteen years several manifestations of geometric phase in optics have been discovered. The most studied manifestations are spin redirection phase and Pancharatnam phase. A new phase on the transformations of optical beam modes has begun to be studied. This article reviews the principles of these phases and discusses the applications that have been proposed and reported in the liter...

Quantum and Atom Optics

Dispersion compensation in atom interferometry by a Sagnac phase

He-McKellar-Wilkens topological phase in atom interferometry.

We report an experimental test of the topological phase predicted by He and McKellar in 1993 and by Wilkens in 1994: this phase, which appears when an electric dipole propagates in a magnetic field, is connected to the Aharonov-Casher effect by electric-magnetic duality. The He-McKellar-Wilkens phase is quite small, at most 27 mrad in our experiment, and this experiment requires the high phase ...