Influence of optical aberrations on the accuracy of an atomic gravimeter

TL;DR

This paper investigates how optical aberrations affect the precision of atomic gravimeters, emphasizing the importance of detailed simulations and proposing delta-kicked atomic clouds to reduce systematic errors.

Contribution

It demonstrates the limitations of low-order Zernike polynomial models and highlights the necessity of high-order aberration simulations for accurate predictions.

Findings

High-order aberration simulations are essential for accuracy.

Delta-kicked atomic clouds mitigate aberration effects.

Low-order models depend heavily on decomposition methods.

Abstract

We present numerical simulations of the impact of laser beam wavefront aberrations in cold atom interferometers. We demonstrate that to reach accuracy at the mrad level, simulations cannot be based on a description of the retroreflection optics only with low-order Zernike polynomials, as the results will then depend on the decomposition order and the decomposition technique chosen. Moreover, simulations with high-order Zernike polynomials or equivalently high spatial frequency components require the propagation of aberrations to be taken into account, rather than adding them to the ideally propagated beam. Finally, we examine the impact of the parameters of the atomic source and show that the use of delta-kicked atomic cloud would efficiently mitigate the impact of this systematic effect.