A trapped-atom Sagnac interferometer using reciprocal circular trajectories

Tackmann, Schubert, Berg +2 more

Charles A. Sackett, Edward Moan, Zhe Luo

We describe an implementation of a Sagnac interferometer using a Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a harmonic time-orbiting potential trap. Atoms are manipulated using Bragg laser beams to produce two reciprocal interferometers, providing common-mode rejection of accelerations, trap fluctuations, and most other effects. The Sagnac rotation phase is differential. The orbit of the atoms is nearly circular, with an effective Sagnac area of about 0.5 mm2.

Cyrille Solaro, Alexis Bonnin, Xavier Alauze +6 more

Andreas Steffen, Andrea Alberti, Wolfgang Alt +5 more

Edward Moan, R. A. Horne, Tanwa Arpornthip +4 more

We describe a Sagnac interferometer suitable for rotation sensing, implemented using an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a harmonic magnetic trap. The atom wave packets are split and recombined by standing-wave Bragg lasers, and the trapping potential steers the packets along circular trajectories with a radius of 0.2 mm. Two conjugate interferometers are implemented simultaneously to provide common-mode rejection of noise and to isolate the rotation signal. With interference visibilities of about 50%, we achieve a rotation sensitivity comparable to Earth's rate in about 10 min of operation. Gyroscope operation was demonstrated by rotating the optical table on which the experiment was performed.

Bruno Pelle, Adèle Hilico, Quentin Beaufils +7 more