Atom interferometer for high precision navigation and gravity sensing

Researchers in Prof. Mark Kasevich's laboratory have developed a patented “point source” interferometer designed to precisely sense inertial force with a simple physical configuration suitable for portable field devices such as gyrocompasses, navigation systems and metrology instruments. It uses multiaxis (two rotation, one acceleration) sensing at long interrogation times to directly characterize phase shifts by combining spatially resolved imaging with a localized atomic source. This design improved acceleration sensitivity more than 2 orders of magnitude over previous limits.

Stage of Research
The inventors demonstrated a light-pulse atom interferometer with an inferred acceleration sensitivity of 6.7 x 10^-12g for each shot.