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arXiv:2504.20345 · Physical Review Research

Multiloop and multiaxis atomtronic Sagnac interferometry

Saurabh Pandey, Ceren Uzun, Katarzyna Anna Krzyzanowska, M. G. Boshier

Published Jan 20, 2026• 2 citations

Abstract

We report the experimental realization of a large-area and multiaxis atomtronic interferometer in an optical waveguide for rotation sensing. A large enclosed area is achieved through multiloop operation in a guided-atom interferometer using Bose-Einstein condensates. We demonstrate a three-loop interferometer with a total interrogation time of ∼ 0.4 s and an enclosed area of 8.7 mm 2 —the largest reported in a fully guided or one-dimensional setup. High-contrast interference fringes are observed for up to five Sagnac orbits in a smaller loop-area configuration. Our approach enables interleaved rotation measurements about multiple arbitrary axes within the same experimental setup. We present results for area-enclosing interferometers in both horizontal and vertical planes, demonstrating that the interferometer contrast remains comparable across orthogonal orientations of the enclosed area vectors.

DOI: 10.1103/xqqg-w58l

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•Mar 1, 2025•0 citations

We report the experimental realization of a large-area and multiaxis atomtronic interferometer in an optical waveguide for rotation sensing. A large enclosed area is achieved through multiloop operation in a guided-atom interferometer using Bose-Einstein condensates. We demonstrate a three-loop interferometer with a total interrogation time of ∼ 0.4 s and an enclosed area of 8.7 mm 2 —the largest reported in a fully guided or one-dimensional setup. High-contrast interference fringes are observed for up to five Sagnac orbits in a smaller loop-area configuration. Our approach enables interleaved rotation measurements about multiple arbitrary axes within the same experimental setup. We present results for area-enclosing interferometers in both horizontal and vertical planes, demonstrating that the interferometer contrast remains comparable across orthogonal orientations of the enclosed area vectors.

We describe a matter-wave Sagnac interferometer using Bose condensed atoms confined in a time-orbiting potential trap. Compared to our previous implementation [Moan et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 120403 (2020)], our new apparatus provides better thermal stability, improved optical access, and reduced trap anharmonicity. The trapping field can be adjusted to compensate for small tilts of the apparatus in gravity. These features enable operation with an effective Sagnac area of 4 mm2 per orbit, and we observe interference with 25% visibility after two orbits at a total interrogation time of 0.6 s. Long-term measurements indicate a phase stability of 0.2 rad or better.

We demonstrate a two-dimensional atom interferometer in a harmonic magnetic waveguide using a Bose-Einstein condensate. Such an interferometer could measure rotation using the Sagnac effect. Compared to free space interferometers, larger interactions times and enclosed areas can in principle be achieved, since the atoms are not in free fall. In this implementation, we induce the atoms to oscillate along one direction by displacing the trap center. We then split and recombine the atoms along an orthogonal direction using an off-resonant optical standing wave. We enclose a maximum effective area of

0.1\text{ }{\text{mm}}^{2}

limited by fluctuations in the initial velocity and by the coherence time of the interferometer. We argue that this arrangement is scalable to enclose larger areas by increasing the coherence time and then making repeated loops.

The sensitivity of light and matter-wave interferometers to rotations is based on the Sagnac effect and increases with the area enclosed by the interferometer. In the case of light, the latter can be enlarged by forming multiple fibre loops, whereas the equivalent for matter-wave interferometers remains an experimental challenge. We present a concept for a multi-loop atom interferometer with a scalable area formed by light pulses. Our method will offer sensitivities as high as [Formula: see text] rad/s at 1 s in combination with the respective long-term stability as required for Earth rotation monitoring.

We demonstrate area-enclosing atom interferometry based on a moving guide. Light pulses along the free-propagation direction of a magnetic guide are applied to split and recombine the confined atomic matter-wave, while the atoms are translated back and forth along a second direction in 50 ms. The interferometer is estimated to resolve 10 times the earth rotation rate per interferometry cycle. We demonstrate a "folded figure 8" interfering configuration for creating a compact, large-area atom gyroscope with multiple-turn interfering paths.

We report a multiple-loop guided atom interferometer in which the atoms make 200 small-amplitude roundtrips, instead of one large single orbit. The approach is enabled by using ultracold 39K gas and a magnetic Feshbach resonance that can tune the s-wave scattering length across zero to significantly reduce the atom loss from cold collisions. This scheme is resilient against noisy environments, achieving 0.9 s interrogation time without any vibration noise isolation or cancellation. A form of quantum lock-in amplification can be used with the device to measure localized potentials with high sensitivity. We used this technique to measure the dynamic polarizability of the 39K ground state at 1064 nm. The interferometer may also be a useful approach to building a compact multiple-loop Sagnac atom interferometer for rotation sensing.

Matter-wave interferometry with cold atoms offers a competitive tool for absolute measurements of acceleration and rotation. The sensitivity of atom-interferometric gyroscopes depends on the area enclosed by the interferometer. In this contribution, we present a concept for a rotation sensor, utilizing a multi-loop interferometer geometry to achieve a scalable area while maintaining a compact setup. It enables rotation measurements of a single axis on ground and can be extended to measure rotations along all three spatial axes in microgravity, for potential applications in space missions, Earth observation, and navigation systems.