September 2016
Spotlight Summary by Paul Hamilton
Phase shift formulation for N-light-pulse atom interferometers: application to inertial sensing
Tailoring the geometry of atom interferometers is simple, requiring only a change in the sequence of light pulses that act as beamsplitters and mirrors. This versatility allows atom interferometry to be used for an increasingly wide variety of purposes including inertial navigation, measurements of fundamental constants, applications in geophysics, and potentially even gravitational wave detection. In this JOSA B article, Cadoret and co-authors develop a new compact theoretical method for calculating the phase shift in an interferometer with arbitrary pulse sequences. This scheme makes including the effects of rotations, accelerations, and gravity gradients in calculations straightforward, and the authors demonstrate complete agreement with more complicated methods for all standard interferometer geometries. In addition, because the coefficients in their formulas can each be identified with corresponding physical sources, this method provides a new toolbox for finding geometries immune to systematic effects. Showcasing this ability, the authors suggest two new geometries for a photon recoil measurement immune to accelerations, rotations, and gravity gradients.
You must log in to add comments.
Add Comment
You must log in to add comments.
Article Information
Phase shift formulation for N-light-pulse atom interferometers: application to inertial sensing
Malo Cadoret, Nassim Zahzam, Yannick Bidel, Clément Diboune, Alexis Bonnin, Fabien Théron, and Alexandre Bresson
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 33(8) 1777-1788 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF