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Measuring the gravitational acceleration with matter-wave velocimetry

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Abstract

One of the major limitations of atomic gravimeters is represented by the vibration noise of the measurement platform, which cannot be distinguished from the relevant acceleration signal. In this paper we perform atom interferometry measurements of the gravitational acceleration with high resolution without any need for a vibration isolation system or post-corrections based on seismometer data monitoring the residual accelerations at the sensor head. Using two different schemes, a Ramsey and a Ramsey–Bordé interferometer, we measure the velocity variation of freely falling cold atom samples, thus determining the gravitational acceleration experienced by them. Our instrument has a fractional stability of 2.7 × 10−6 at 1 s of integration time, more than one order of magnitude better than a standard Mach–Zehnder interferometer when operated without any vibration isolation or applied post-correction.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Su Zhan

    Present address: Also at International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICPT), Trieste, Italy

Authors and Affiliations

  1. INFN Sezione di Firenze, Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia & LENS, Università di Firenze, Via Sansone 1, 50019, Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy

    Giulio D’Amico, Manan Jain, Su Zhan & Gabriele Rosi

  2. European Space Agency, Keplerlaan 1, 2200 AG, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

    Luigi Cacciapuoti

Authors
  1. Giulio D’Amico
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  2. Luigi Cacciapuoti
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  3. Manan Jain
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  4. Su Zhan
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  5. Gabriele Rosi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gabriele Rosi.

Additional information

Contribution to the Topical Issue “Quantum Technologies for Gravitational Physics”, edited by Tanja Mehlstäubler, Yanbei Chen, Guglielmo M. Tino, Hsien-Chi Yeh

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D’Amico, G., Cacciapuoti, L., Jain, M. et al. Measuring the gravitational acceleration with matter-wave velocimetry. Eur. Phys. J. D 73, 98 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2019-90543-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2019-90543-0

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