Tailoring multi-loop atom interferometers with adjustable momentum transfer

TL;DR

This paper introduces an adjustable momentum transfer method to suppress spurious paths in multi-loop atom interferometers, significantly improving rotation measurement sensitivity in cold-atom gyroscopes.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel technique for controlling momentum transfer to prevent spurious path recombination in double-loop atom interferometers.

Findings

Successfully demonstrated suppression of spurious paths

Achieved at least 50-fold improvement in acceleration sensitivity

Supported by a coherence-based model

Abstract

Multi-loop matter-wave interferometers are essential in quantum sensing to measure the derivatives of physical quantities in time or space. Because multi-loop interferometers require multiple reflections, imperfections of the matter-wave mirrors create spurious paths that scramble the signal of interest. Here we demonstrate a method of adjustable momentum transfer that prevents the recombination of the spurious paths in a double-loop atom interferometer aimed at measuring rotation rates. We experimentally study the recombination condition of the spurious matter waves, which is quantitatively supported by a model accounting for the coherence properties of the atomic source. We finally demonstrate the effectiveness of the method in building a cold-atom gyroscope with a single-shot acceleration sensitivity suppressed by a factor of at least 50. Our study will impact the design of multi-loop atom interferometers that measure a single inertial quantity.