Navigation with Atom Interferometers

Abstract

In this article, we review the basic physics of an atom interferometer. We highlight the usefulness of atom interferometers for inertial navigation due to their high phase sensitivity to both linear acceleration and angular rotation, but also the drawback that a single atom interferometer cannot distinguish between the two sources of phase shifts. We describe a design for a dual atom interferometer to simultaneously measure acceleration and rotation and we describe the current status of our apparatus.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 20, 2017
Accession Number
AD1041671

Entities

People

  • Frank A. Narducci
  • Mary F Locke

Organizations

  • Naval Air Systems Command

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accelerometers
  • Acousto-Optic Modulators
  • Atomic Beams
  • Electronic States
  • Frequency
  • Ground State
  • Interferometers
  • Laser Pulses
  • Navigation
  • Optical Interferometers
  • Optics
  • Phase Shift
  • Probability
  • Radio Frequency
  • Random Walk
  • Three Dimensional
  • Two Dimensional

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Inertial Navigation Systems.
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Quantum spin resonance or Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy.