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Single-atom interferometer based on two-dimensional spatial adiabatic passage

In this work we propose a novel single-atom interferometer based on a fully two-dimensional spatial adiabatic passage process using a system of three identical harmonic traps in a triangular geometry. While the transfer of a single atom from the ground state of one trap to the ground state of the most distant one can successfully be achieved in a robust way for a broad range of parameter values, we point out the existence of a specific geometrical configuration of the traps for which a crossing of two energy eigenvalues occurs and the transfer of the atom fails. Instead the wavefunction is robustly split into a coherent superposition between two of the traps. We show that this process can be used to construct a single-atom interferometer and discuss its performance in terms of the final population distribution among the asymptotic eigenstates of the individual traps. This interferometric scheme could be used to study space dependent fields from ultrashort to relatively large distances, or the decay of the coherence of superposition states as a function of the distance.