Unified laboratory-frame analysis of atomic gravitational-wave sensors

Atomic sensors using light–matter interactions, in particular, atomic clocks and atom interferometers, have the potential to complement optical gravitational-wave detectors in the mid-frequency regime. Although both rely on interference, the interfering components of clocks are spatially colocated, whereas atom interferometers are based on spatial superpositions. Both the electromagnetic fields that drive the transitions and generate superpositions, while propagating through spacetime, as well as the atoms themselves as massive particles are influenced by gravitational waves, leading to effective potentials that induce phase differences inferred by the sensor. In this work, we analyze the effects of these potentials on atomic clocks and atom interferometers in the laboratory frame. We show that spatial superpositions in atom interferometers, both light-pulse and guided ones, give rise to a gravitational-wave signal. Although these spatial superpositions are suppressed for clocks, we show that the light pulses driving internal transitions measure the spatial distance between the centers of two separate clocks. We highlight that this mechanism only yields a sensitivity if both clocks, including possible trapping setups, move on geodesics given by the gravitational wave. While such configurations are natural for satellite free-fliers, terrestrial optical clocks usually rely on stationary traps, rendering them insensitive to leading order. Moreover, we show that both sensors can be enhanced by composite interrogation protocols in a common framework. To this end, we propose a pulse sequence that can be used for large-momentum-transfer atom interferometers and for hyper-echo atomic clocks, leading to signal enhancement and noise suppression.