Stability enhancement by joint phase measurements in a single cold atomic fountain

TL;DR

This paper introduces a joint interrogation method in a single cold atomic fountain that reduces dead time, enhances stability, and improves measurement speed by interrogating multiple atom clouds simultaneously.

Contribution

It presents a novel joint operation technique for cold atom interferometers that surpasses current stability limits caused by dead times.

Findings

Achieved simultaneous interrogation of up to five atom clouds.

Demonstrated reduction in measurement dead time.

Enhanced stability limits in cold atom sensors.

Abstract

We propose a method of joint interrogation in a single atom interferometer which overcomes the dead time between consecutive measurements in standard cold atomic fountains. The joint operation enables for a faster averaging of the Dick effect associated with the local oscillator noise in clocks and with vibration noise in cold atom inertial sensors. Such an operation allows achieving the lowest stability limit due to atom shot noise. We demonstrate a multiple joint operation in which up to five clouds of atoms are interrogated simultaneously in a single setup. The essential feature of multiple joint operation, demonstrated here for a micro-wave Ramsey interrogation, can be generalized to go beyond the current stability limit associated with dead times in present-day cold atom interferometer inertial sensors.