Advances in Portable Atom Interferometry-Based Gravity Sensing

Abstract

Gravity sensing is a valuable technique used for several applications, including fundamental physics, civil engineering, metrology, geology, and resource exploration. While classical gravimeters have proven useful, they face limitations, such as mechanical wear on the test masses, resulting in drift, and limited measurement speeds, hindering their use for long-term monitoring, as well as the need to average out microseismic vibrations, limiting their speed of data acquisition. Emerging sensors based on atom interferometry for gravity measurements could offer promising solutions to these limitations, and are currently advancing towards portable devices for real-world applications. This article provides a brief state-of-the-art review of portable atom interferometry-based quantum sensors and provides a perspective on routes towards improved sensors.

Seismic noise effect suppression for the performance testing of high-precision space electrostatic accelerometers using a torsion pendulum with differential configuration

“…Space electrostatic accelerometers are one of the most widely used high-precision accelerometers [1][2][3][4][5][6][7], due to their high sensitivity, stability, and wide frequency response. Researchers from Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiale (ONERA) have developed a series of electrostatic accelerometers for different gravity measurement missions [8][9][10], such as the gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE) [11][12][13], the challenging mini-satellite payload (CHAMP) [14] and the gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer (GOCE) missions [15,16].…”