Local gravity measurement with the combination of atom interferometry and Bloch oscillations

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a compact method for local gravity measurement by integrating atom interferometry with Bloch oscillations, achieving high sensitivity without bias, and highlighting the technique's simplicity and potential for practical applications.

Contribution

It introduces a simplified experimental setup combining Bloch oscillations and atom interferometry for precise local gravity measurement.

Findings

Achieved sensitivity of 2x10^-7 g with 300 s integration

No bias detected from Bloch oscillations

Observed contrast decay linked to laser beam quality

Abstract

We present a local measurement of gravity combining Bloch oscillations and atom interferometry. With a falling distance of 0.8 mm, we achieve a sensitivity of 2x10-7 g with an integration time of 300 s. No bias associated with the Bloch oscillations has been measured. A contrast decay with Bloch oscillations has been observed and attributed to the spatial quality of the laser beams. A simple experimental configuration has been adopted where a single retro-reflected laser beam is performing atoms launch, stimulated Raman transitions and Bloch oscillations. The combination of Bloch oscillations and atom interferometry can thus be realized with an apparatus no more complex than a standard atomic gravimeter.