Differential phase extraction in dual interferometers exploiting the correlation between classical and quantum sensors

Abstract

International audienceWe perform the experimental demonstration of the method proposed in [Phys. Rev. A 91, 063615 (2015)] to extract the differential phase in dual atom interferometers. From a single magneto-optical trap, we generate two atomic sources, vertically separated and free-falling synchronously, with the help of an accelerated lattice. We drive simultaneous Raman interferometers onto the two sources, and use the correlation with the vibration signal measured by a seismometer to extract the phase of each interferometer. We demonstrate an optimal sensitivity of the extracted differential phase between the two interferometers, free from vibration noise and limited by detection noise, when the two interferometers are in phase

A prototype industrial laser system for cold atom inertial sensing in space

“…These results are comparable in terms of fraction of launched atoms to the ones we obtained in [35]. This fraction corresponds more or less to the fraction of the velocity distribution fitting into the first Brillouin zone (of width 2v r ).…”

“…This sensor is designed for measurements of gravity and its gradient, based on simultaneous atom interferometers performed on two vertically separated atomic sources [34]. At the time of the test campaign, the setup was partly functional, with the bottom interferometer under operation only [35].…”

“…We only briefly describe this setup and the measurement sequence here, more details can be found in [35,34]. At first, we trap about 10 8 cold 87 Rb atoms in 480 ms in a 3D mirror magneto-optical trap (MOT), which is loaded from the cold beam of a 2D MOT.…”

“…To drive this sensor, we use the compact and simple home-made laser system (HMLS) described in [23]. This laser system, based on two semiconductor diode lasers and one amplifier, generates all the laser beams required for running a cold atom interferometer based on Raman transitions, namely laser cooling, interferometer and detection beams, and has been used for a number of different atom interferometer experiments [36,37,35,34].…”

Exploring the foundations of the physical universe with space tests of the equivalence principle

“…However, this effect can be suppressed by matching the frequency response of the two interferometers [117]. Also, correlation to classical acceleration sensors allows for post-correction and fringe reconstruction even in very noisy environments [109,[118][119][120], allowing for a high dynamic range. Currently, the performance of these hybrid sensors is limited by the performance of the classical acceleration sensor, calling for improvement on that end.…”