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

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.

15 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (11)

• Atom Interferometry with up to 24-Photon-Momentum-Transfer Beam Splitters
• Dual Matter-Wave Inertial Sensors in Weightlessness
• Absolute airborne gravimetry with a cold atom sensor
• Precision atomic gravimeter based on Bragg diffraction
• The Sagnac effect: 20 years of development in matter-wave interferometry
• Hybridizing matter-wave and classical accelerometers
• Atom-wave diffraction between the Raman-Nath and the Bragg regime: Effective Rabi frequency, losses, and phase shifts
• A compact differential gravimeter at the quantum projection noise limit
• Improving the phase response of an atom interferometer by means of temporal pulse shaping
• Bi-selective pulses for large-area atom interferometry
• Robust Atom Optics for Bragg Atom Interferometry

Cited by in corpus (19)

• Entanglement-enhanced quantum metrology: from standard quantum limit to Heisenberg limit
• Optimal Floquet Engineering for Large Scale Atom Interferometers
• Robust Quantum Control via Multipath Interference for Thousandfold Phase Amplification in a Resonant Atom Interferometer
• Robust double Bragg diffraction via detuning control
• Vector Atom Accelerometry in an Optical Lattice
• Inertial Torsion Noise in Matter-Wave Interferometers for Gravity Experiments
• Integration of a high-fidelity model of quantum sensors with a map-matching filter for quantum-enhanced navigation
• Quantum Metrology via Floquet-Engineered Two-axis Twisting and Turn Dynamics
• Dichroic mirror pulses for optimized higher-order atomic Bragg diffraction
• More buck-per-shot: Why learning trumps mitigation in noisy quantum sensing
• Dual Open Atom Interferometry for Compact and Mobile Quantum Sensing
• Coherent coupling of momentum states: selectivity and phase control
• High-contrast double Bragg interferometry via detuning control
• Atomic diffraction by patterned holes in hexagonal boron nitride: a comparison between semi-classical and quantum computational models
• An atomic Fabry-Perot interferometer-based acceleration sensor for microgravity environments
• Diffraction phase-free Bragg atom interferometry
• Optimal strategies for low-noise detection of atoms using resonant frequency modulation spectroscopy in cold atom interferometers
• Vortex Propagation in Orbital Angular Momentum Beams and the Effects of a Limited Aperture
• Tensor gravity gradiometry with a single-axis atom gradiometer