Quantum Optics Seminar by Prof. Philippe Bouyer, CNRS

Correlative and phase locking methods for atom interferometry

ABSTRACT The sensitivity of an atomic interferometer increases when the phase evolution of its quantum superposition state is measured over a longer interrogation
interval. In practice, a limit is set by the measurement process, which returns
not the phase, but its projection in terms of population difference on two
energetic levels. The phase interval over which the relation can be inverted is
thus limited and going beyond it introduces an ambiguity in the read out, hence
a sensitivity loss. This often limits the usability of atom interferometer
based sensors to a quiet environment and hinders its performance when used, for
instance, in a mobile vehicle. I will present various approaches when a classical
and a quantum sensors are correlated, or even phase locked to remove the
ambiguity.