Atom interferometry at arbitrary orientations and rotation rates

Abstract

The exquisite precision of atom interferometers has sparked the interest of a large community for uses ranging from fundamental physics to geodesy and inertial navigation. However, their implementation for onboard applications is still limited, not least because rotation and acceleration are intertwined in a single phase shift, which makes the extraction of a useful signal more challenging. Moreover, the spatial separation of the wave packets due to rotations leads to a loss of signal. We present an atom interferometer operating over a large range of random angles, rotation rates and accelerations. A model of the expected phase shift allows us to untangle the rotation and acceleration signals. We also implement a real-time compensation system using fiber-optic gyroscopes and a rotating reference mirror to maintain the full contrast of the interferometer. We demonstrate a single-shot sensitivity to acceleration of 24 μg for rotation rates reaching 14° s−1.