Both time and frequency standards and inertial sensors can be implemented starting from clouds of 104 - 107 atoms cooled down to few microkelvin. Presently, high sensitivity interferometers that can measure the local value of the gravitational field g with more than 11 digits are under construction. Apart from the obvious applications in geological prospection, these instruments will allow extremely sensitive tests of the equivalence principle ("All bodies fall with the same acceleration") or of the Newton's law of gravitation at small distances (d < 1 mm). A mixed, optical and atomic, interferometer for gravitational wave detection (“MIGA” experiment) is under development at Univ. of Bordeaux with the collaboration of University of Bologna.
Also, a new experimental setup is planned to create an hybrid system composed of cold-atoms and nanostructured surfaces, where the traditional trapping potentials for cold-atoms will be replaced with those generated by laser light scattered off a tailored nanopatterned surface. The use of nanosurfaces will allow to trap atoms in more densely packed arrays, with promising possibilities for the exploration of low temperatures many-body quantum phases and for the investigation of the fundamental interaction forces between atoms and surfaces.
Pubblications
Prevedelli
Minardi