Enhancing the sensitivity of atom-interferometric inertial sensors using robust control

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that using robust control-designed light pulses significantly enhances the performance and noise resilience of atom-interferometric inertial sensors in challenging environments.

Contribution

The authors experimentally show that tailored robust control pulses improve atom-interferometric accelerometer sensitivity and noise robustness compared to conventional pulses.

Findings

Measurement precision improved by 10× under lateral platform noise.

Sensor maintains performance with up to 20% laser-intensity noise.

Enhanced measurement accuracy over a 200 μg acceleration range.

Abstract

Atom-interferometric quantum sensors could revolutionize navigation, civil engineering, and Earth observation. However, operation in real-world environments is challenging due to external interference, platform noise, and constraints on size, weight, and power. Here we experimentally demonstrate that tailored light pulses designed using robust control techniques mitigate significant error sources in an atom-interferometric accelerometer. To mimic the effect of unpredictable lateral platform motion, we apply laser-intensity noise that varies up to 20$\%$ from pulse-to-pulse. Our robust control solution maintains performant sensing, while the utility of conventional pulses collapses. By measuring local gravity, we show that our robust pulses preserve interferometer scale factor and improve measurement precision by 10$\times$ in the presence of this noise. We further validate these enhancements by measuring applied accelerations over a 200 $\mu g$ range up to 21$\times$ more precisely at the highest applied noise level. Our demonstration provides a pathway to improved atom-interferometric inertial sensing in real-world settings.