We are developing a large-scale atom interferometer based on the clock transition of strontium atoms in a project called AION: An Atom Interferometer Observatory and Network. The AION project is being carried out in collaboration with the MAGIS-100: Matter-wave Atomic Gradiometer Interferometric Sensor. AION shares many technical features with the MAGIS experimental programme, and an eventual aim is to operate these instruments as part of network, perhaps also including other large-scale atom interferometer experiments in progress worldwide. These novel detectors will search for ultralight dark matter and are a technology pathfinder for future gravitational wave detectors in a previously unexplored frequency band (when the devices have been scaled up to kilometer size). The talk will describe the operating principles of the detector and instrument design, including the advantages of using the single-photon clock transition in strontium as compared to (two-photon) Raman transitions that are currently used in atom interferometers based on laser-cooled alkali metal atoms.
AION is funded the Quantum Technology for Fundamental Physics program in the UK (Science and Technology Facilities Council).
[1] AION: an atom interferometer observatory and network. L. Badurina et al. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, JCAP05(2020)011, (2020). {arXiv:1911.11755}
[2] Matter-wave Atomic Gradiometer Interferometric Sensor (MAGIS-100). M. Abe et al. Quantum Sci. Technol. 6, 044003 (2021). {arXiv:2104.02835}