Sensitivity Enhancement in Atom-Interferometer Gyroscopes via Phase-Modulation Signal Readout Scheme

Abstract

Quantum sensors based on atom interferometers are advancing both fundamental physics and practical applications, with higher sensitivity being a key requirement for these investigations. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a sensitivity enhancement of an atom-interferometer gyroscope using a phase-modulation signal readout scheme. Phase modulation applied to the laser light used for atomic state manipulation is transferred to the atomic phase and read out via multi-harmonic demodulation. The observed sensitivity improvement factor of $1.20\pm 0.04$ over the conventional phase sweep scheme agrees with theoretical predictions. We also found that phase-dispersion compensation control, which compensates atomic velocity dispersion and preserves interference contrast at high angular rates, effectively eliminates the nonlinearity inherent in multi-harmonic demodulation. The sensitivity improvement achieved by our method is applicable to a broad class of atom interferometers and requires no modifications to the optical or vacuum systems, making it particularly effective for size-constrained applications such as large-baseline experiments and inertial navigation systems.

7 pages, 4 figures