Sagnac Tractor Atom Interferometer on Photonic Integrated Circuit

Abstract: We study the theory of, and propose an experimental design for, a Sagnac tractor atom interferometer based on a photonic integrated circuit (PIC). The atoms are trapped in counter-rotating azimuthal optical lattices, formed by interfering evanescent fields of laser modes injected into circular PIC waveguides. We develop quantum models for the radial and azimuthal dynamics of the interfering atoms in adiabatic frames, which provide computational efficiency. The theory is applied to an exemplary PIC, for which we first compute field modes and atom trapping potentials for $^{87}$Rb. We then evaluate non-adiabaticity, fidelity, and sensitivity of the exemplary PIC.