A Condensate-Based Atom Interferometer for Ultra-Precise Gyroscopic Sensing

It is proposed to develop an atom interferometer making use of Bose-Einstein condensation. Atom interferometers work by coherently splitting and recombining the quantum wave functions of massive particles, much as light beams are manipulated in an optical interferometer. Atom interferometers have been used for many purposes, including measurements of acceleration, gravitation, electromagnetic fields, molecular interactions, and fundamental constants. Condensates are well-suited for these applications, since they consist of a large number of atoms with identical wave functions. Compared to the thermal atomic sources used previously, condensates can be expected to yield substantially improved performance because of their high degree of coherence and low atomic velocities.

The interferometer to be developed will be a prototype capable of demonstrating a high-sensitivity interference pattern. Its design will involve the investigation of several novel technical and fundamental issues. The methods developed will be useful for many purposes, but the particular application considered here is the sensing of rotation. Such measurements are important for navigation and for geophysical studies. A condensate gyroscope would exhibit sensitivity at least thirty times better than the current state-of-the-art, while consuming considerably less space. These advantages illustrate the power and benefit that condensate interferometry offers.