Exploring the gravito-optic effect for gravity sensing applications

Accurate measurements of Earth gravity and its variations with time are crucial not only for fundamental research on gravitation in physics, but also for other scientific areas including Earth sciences, geophysics and various applications such as geodesy, resource exploration, climate monitoring and navigation as well as natural hazard assessment. Current test mass-based gravimeters are inherently sensitive to vibrations and inertia accelerations, which limits their sensitivity and accuracy in moving platform applications. Conventional mass-based gravimeters are also subject to drift. Here we report an optical fibre sensing system for measuring gravity using a recently demonstrated gravito-optic effect. Initial test results of this current study show that photonics-based solid-state gravimeters without using test-mass in the systems could be developed for moving platform gravimetry. These have particular applications for airborne gravity mapping and underwater navigation applications.