| 摘要 |
The invention is a neutral atom (and/or molecule) matterwave interferometer (and/or set of interferometers) that can be used as a ultra-sensitive inertial and/or gravity sensor. A pair of interferometers with different energies and/or masses can perform simultaneous independent measurements of rotation and acceleration.Interferometers with paths that follow a figure-eight pattern yield a gravitational gradiometer. Diffraction gratings are employed as beam splitters. Such gratings may consist of apertures (S1,S2,G1,G2,G3,G4,G5,G6) in a sheet of solid material, near-resonant standing-wave laser beams (97,99,101), or crystal faces (179). Path curvature due to acceleration and rotation is canceled by magnetic and/or electric field gradients that produce an effective levitation of slow atoms. A feedback system that maintains an interferometer phase null is employed with its error signal yielding the inertial effect signals.
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