paper

Sensitive Absolute Gravity Gradiometry Using Atom Interferometry

arXiv:physics/0105088 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.65.033608

Abstract

We report the demonstration of a sensitive absolute gravity gradiometer based on light-pulse atom interference techniques. The gradiometer consists of two absolute accelerometers operated in a differential mode. We report a differential acceleration sensitivity of 4e-9 g/Hz^(1/2) and an inferred differential acceleration accuracy of less than 1e-9 g. This corresponds to a gravity gradient sensitivity of 4 E/Hz^(1/2) [1 E = 1e-9 s^(-2)] and an accuracy of better than 1 E for a 10 m separation between accelerometers. We demonstrate that the instrument can be used to detect nearby masses in a vibrationally noisy environment and characterize instrument sensitivity to spurious acceleration and rotation noise.

15 pages, 11 figures zipped into one file, submitted to Phys. Rev. A

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