Sensitivity test of a blue-detuned dipole trap designed for parity non-conservation measurements in Fr.

A dynamic blue-detuned optical dipole trap with stable (87)Rb atoms produces a differential ac Stark shift of 18 Hz in the ground state hyperfine transition, and it preserves the ground state hyperfine superpositions for a long coherence time of 180 ms. The trapped atoms undergoing microwave Rabi oscillations are sensitive to a small signal, artificially generated with a second microwave source, phase locked to the first allowing a simple and effective method for determining signal-to-noise ratio limits through interference techniques. This provides an excellent means of calibrating sensitivity in experiments such as our ongoing Fr parity non-conservation measurement.