Vibration Rejection on Atomic Gravimeter Signal Using a Seismometer

Abstract

We use atom interferometry to perform an absolute measurement of the gravitational acceleration g. The sensitivity of the interferometer is predominantly limited by vibration noise, even when drastically reduced by using a passive isolation platform. We present here an original correction scheme of the residual vibration induced interferometer phase fluctuations, based on the use of a low noise seismometer. In the best conditions, our instrument reaches an excellent sensitivity of 1.4 × 10-8 g at 1 s, despite operating in an urban environment. But the method presented here allows reaching good performances even when operating without any vibration isolation. The sensitivity of our instrument at night is then as low as 5.5 × 10-8 g at 1 s. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.