Single-Source Multiaxis Cold-Atom Interferometer in a Centimeter-Scale Cell

Multiaxis inertial sensing with long-time point source atom interferometry.

We show that light-pulse atom interferometry with atomic point sources and spatially resolved detection enables multiaxis (two rotation, one acceleration) precision inertial sensing at long interrogation times. Using this method, we demonstrate a light-pulse atom interferometer for 87Rb with 1.4 cm peak wave packet separation and a duration of 2T=2.3 s. The inferred acceleration sensitivity of ...

Characterization and limits of a cold atom Sagnac interferometer

We present the full evaluation of a cold atom gyroscope based on atom interferometry. We have performed extensive studies to determine the systematic errors, scale factor and sensitivity. We demonstrate that the acceleration noise can be efficiently removed from the rotation signal, allowing us to reach the fundamental limit of the quantum projection noise for short term measurements. The techn...

Straight macroscopic magnetic guide for cold atom interferometer

From single- to multiple-pPhoton decoherence in an atom interferometer.

We measure the decoherence of a spatially separated atomic superposition due to spontaneous photon scattering. We observe a qualitative change in decoherence versus separation as the number of scattered photons increases, and verify quantitatively the decoherence rate constant in the many-photon limit. Our results illustrate an evolution of decoherence consistent with general models developed f...

A cold atom pyramidal gravimeter with a single laser beam