Atom interferometry in an Einstein Elevator
Recent advances in atom interferometry have led to the development of quantum inertial sensors with outstanding performance in terms of sensitivity, accuracy, and long-term stability. For ground-based implementations, these sensors are ultimately limited by the free-fall height of atomic fountains required to interrogate the atoms over extended timescales. This limitation can be overcome in Space and in unique "microgravity" facilities such as drop towers or free-falling aircraft. These facilities require large investments, long development times, and place stringent constraints on instruments that further limit their widespread use. In this work, we present a new approach in which atom interferometry is performed in a laboratory-scale Einstein Elevator. We demonstrate an acceleration sensitivity of 6 × 10<sup>-7</sup> m/s<sup>2</sup> per shot, with a total interrogation time of 2T = 200 ms. We further demonstrate the capability to perform long-term statistical studies by operating the Einstein Elevator over several days with high reproducibility.
Authors
- Martin Rabault (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0767-342X)
- Vincent Jarlaud (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8125-7489)
- Célia Pelluet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0333-8421)
- Philippe Bouyer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4458-0089)
- Baptiste Battelier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9097-8181)
- B. Barrett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3312-5542)
- Romain Arguel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-4002-9627)
- Cyrille Métayer
Institutions
- University of New Brunswick (CA)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Université de Bordeaux (FR)
- Centre National d'Études Spatiales (FR)
- QuSoft (NL)
- Laboratoire Photonique, Numérique et Nanosciences (FR)
- Eindhoven University of Technology (NL)
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-05-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60042-7
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.99
Funders
- European Space Agency
- New Brunswick Innovation Foundation
- European Commission
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada