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The effect of wavefront aberrations in atom interferometry

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Abstract

Wavefront aberrations are one of the largest uncertainty factors in present atom interferometers. We present a detailed numerical and experimental analysis of this effect based on measured aberrations from optical windows. By placing windows into the Raman beam path of our atomic gravimeter, we verify for the first time the induced bias in very good agreement with theory. Our method can be used to reduce the uncertainty in atomic gravimeters by one order of magnitude, resulting in an error of <3 × 10−10g, and it is suitable in a wide variety of atom interferometers with thermal or ultracold atoms. We discuss the limitations of our method, potential improvements, and its role in future generation experiments.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the European Science Foundation and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (EuroQuasar-IQS, PE 904/2-1 and PE 904/4-1). We thank Andreas W. Schell for fruitful discussions and for helping with the data analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Newtonstr. 15, 12489, Berlin, Germany

    V. Schkolnik, B. Leykauf, M. Hauth, C. Freier & A. Peters

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  1. V. Schkolnik
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  2. B. Leykauf
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  3. M. Hauth
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  4. C. Freier
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  5. A. Peters
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Correspondence to V. Schkolnik.

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Schkolnik, V., Leykauf, B., Hauth, M. et al. The effect of wavefront aberrations in atom interferometry. Appl. Phys. B 120, 311–316 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-015-6138-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-015-6138-5

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