Group Seminar via Zoom: Atom interferometry with improved sensitivity, stability, and dynamic range

Dimitry Yankelev, Weizmann Institute
Group meeting via video conference (Zoom)
Tuesday, October 6th, 09:00 (MEZ)

Dealing with the unique situation of partial lock downs worldwide and home office solutions at our Institute due to the current spreading of the Covid 19 virus, we are now holding our group seminars and journal clubs via video conference. This procedure enables us to continue our research, enhance discussions and exchange important information.

Abstract:

Cold atom interferometers are among the most sensitive instruments in measuring inertial forces, such as gravity, gravity gradients, accelerations and rotations. High performance operation outside the lab is challenging due to limited dynamic range and sensitivity to changes in the environment. We introduce and experimentally demonstrate new interferometric schemes and analysis tools aimed at overcoming those limitations and extending the applicability of atom interferometers. We achieve phase estimation at maximal sensitivity and bandwidth by acquiring full-quadrature phase detection. For that purpose, we take advantage of different momentum states of a single atomic cloud, imprinting phases that are offset by pi/2 and measuring them individually. In another work, we extend the dynamic range of atom interferometers by orders of magnitude, with only slight sensitivity loss, by varying the interferometric duration between measurements. Comparing several such measurements allows determination of the phase in a range much larger than 2pi, like in a beatnote between similar frequencies or a moiré effect. We show more than an order of magnitude improvement when using standard atom interferometry operation within ~10 shots. A more advanced scheme offers an order of magnitude enhancement in a single shot, reaching a factor of 1000 within 3 shots. Finally, we realize self-calibration of the scale factor of a point source interferometer gyro to eliminate drifts arising due to the variation in initial cloud size and cloud temperature.

If you would like to join our group seminars via Zoom, please contact us for more information.