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arXiv:1704.07088 · Physical Review Applied

Active Control of Laser Wavefronts in Atom Interferometers

Azer Trimeche, Mehdi Langlois, Sébastien Merlet, Franck Pereira dos Santos

Published Mar 23, 2017• 47 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Optical aberrations in light-pulse atom interferometers are a major limitation in the accuracy and stability of these quantum sensors. In a proof-of-principle experiment, the authors use a deformable mirror to actively control the laser wave fronts in a cold-atom gravimeter, compensating for the distortions induced by optical elements. This fine control of wave fronts opens perspectives for atom interferometry, with applications in navigation, space physics, and high-precision metrology.

DOI
10.1103/physrevapplied.7.034016

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Optical aberrations in light-pulse atom interferometers are a major limitation in the accuracy and stability of these quantum sensors. In a proof-of-principle experiment, the authors use a deformable mirror to actively control the laser wave fronts in a cold-atom gravimeter, compensating for the distortions induced by optical elements. This fine control of wave fronts opens perspectives for atom interferometry, with applications in navigation, space physics, and high-precision metrology.
Wavefront aberrations are today the main contribution in the inaccuracy budget of best cold atom interferometers [1, 2], based on laser beam splitters, and constitute an important limit for their long-term stability [1]. They prevent from exploiting the full potential of these atom interferometers. In this work, we report on the active control of laser wavefronts for atom interferometry and demonstrate in a proof-of-principle experiment the compensation of their aberrations using, for the first time, a deformable mirror in a cold atom inertial sensor.
Summary form only given. Atom interferometry based on cold atoms and light beamsplitters is a mature technique, which allows for the realization of highly sensitive inertial sensors. In the most advanced inertial sensors based on atom interferometry, atomic wavepackets are manipulated by light beamsplitters using two-photon Raman transitions. The interferometer phase shift, which depends on the acceleration and the rotation of the experimental setup with respect to the inertial reference frame defined by the atoms in free fall, is derived from the relative displacement of the atoms with respect to the beamsplitter laser's equiphases. Wavefront aberrations thus induce parasitic phase shifts, which bias the measurement, and which are linked to the residual ballistic motion of the atoms across the laser beam profile during their free fall and cancels out at zero atomic temperature. The wavefront distortions of the lasers beamsplitters is an important limit in the accuracy of atom interferometers and in particular, the dominating contribution in best cold atom gravimeters (CAG) uncertainty budget. This work clears the way towards unprecedented accuracies for absolute gravimetry, below the 1 μGal level. The method proposed can be applied to any atomic sensor based on light beamsplitters, which are inevitably affected by distortions of the lasers wavefronts. The improved control of systematics it provides will have significant impact in high precision measurements with atom interferometry, with important applications to geodesy, fundamental physics tests and to the development of highest grade inertial sensors.
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 less than 3 × 10−10 g and it is suitable in a wide variety of atom interferometers with thermal or ultra cold atoms. We discuss the limitations of our method, potential improvements and its role in future generation experiments. 1
One of the main residual limitations of inertial sensors based on atom interferometry stems from laser beam distortions, which cause parasitic phase shifts and non-homogeneous matter-light couplings. Here we present numerical simulations, accompanied by analytical calculations, which quantify the impact of these effects in a cold atom gradiometer. We demonstrate that the propagation of interferometric laser beam aberrations, combined with initial asymmetry and significant time-of-flight expansion of the the two atomic sources, limit the common-mode rejection of phase noise in a differential configuration. The resulting deviations in gravitational acceleration and its gradient are within reach of current experimental devices. Our study allows us to evaluate the surface quality requirements for retroreflective optics in cold-atom gradiometers of various baselines, and can be extended to other sensors based on different interferometer geometries.
Matter-wave interferometry has enabled high precision measurements of inertial forces such as gravity and the Coriolis force. This is facilitated by the long-term stability of the physical properties of atoms and lasers. Recent experiments have demonstrated the operation of portable, robust sensors using atom interferometry. This has potential uses in the context of inertial navigation, where conventional devices suffer from long-term drifts due to bias instability. Furthermore, determining position via dead reckoning requires minimisation of dead time between measurements. This thesis presents the development of an atom interferometer for measuring horizontal accelerations. In this configuration, gravity induces motion across the laser wavefront, which constrains the tolerable level of wavefront distortions. Effective control of the experiment allows the interferometer to be operated at a rate of 4 Hz. A cold ensemble of 10^6 atoms in the same internal state is prepared in 150 ms. The interferometer operates using a sequence of three laser pulses separated by T= 25 ms to achieve sensitivity to horizontal accelerations. Combining this with a classical accelerometer provides a method of correcting for vibration-induced noise, as well as determining the interferometer fringe order. After an integration time of 40 s, the sensitivity to horizontal accelerations is better than 3^-6 m s^-2. Effects which limit this sensitivity are discussed.