Spin squeezing for precision inertial sensing
Abstract
Approach:Due to systematic errors arising from collisions between atoms, there is typically an upper bound to the number of atoms that can be employed in state-of-the-art interferometric atomic sensors (clocks, accelerometers, and gyroscopes). Squeezing offers a universal path to surpassing this limitation in sensitivity. However, methods demonstrated thus far have fallen significantlyshort of achieving competitive phase readout sensitivities. The proposed development programwill exploit squeezing to achieve sensitivity levels which would otherwise not be feasible.Objective:The proposed work seeks to extend our proof-of-concept demonstrations into Navy-relevant clock and inertial sensor configurations, including free-space light-pulse cold atom sensors and thermal beam sensors. The methods could lead to greater than order-of-magnitude improvement in sensor noise performance. For example, a squeezed state thermal beam gyroscopecould achieve an angle-random walk of better than 1 ~deg/hr1/2 for a 10 cm interaction length. We will demonstrate adaptive measurement protocols that allow operation of squeezed-state interferometric sensors near their optimal bias points.Naval Relevance:The proposed methods could extend the state-of-the-art in numerous related inertial measurement categories by factors of 10 to 100, including accelerometry and gyroscopy. For example, they could enable demonstration of a gyroscope with an angle random walk below 1 microdeg/hr1/2. Such gyroscopes can be used for high accuracy navigation in GPS deniedenvironments. The proposed methods also capable of improving the performance of atomic clocks.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 23, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141612927
Entities
People
- Mark Kasevich
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Stanford University
- United States Navy