Shaken-lattice interferometry for multi-access inertial sensing

Atom interferometry has been an important part of deBroglie wave optics for demonstrating the ways in which atoms (i.e., "matter waves") can interfere with themselves. In the simplest case, atomic beams can be coherently split away from each other in the spatial (transverse) domain, allowed to propagate, are then reflected and later recombined. This scheme bares resemblance to optical interferometers such as the Mach-Zehnder or Michelson type. Building upon this idea, Weidner et al, proposed that the shaken-lattice interferometer (SLI) can be transformed into an inertial sensor of acceleration and rotation [1]. Through phase-modulation of the optical lattice, one can induce the sinusoidal shaking required to split the atomic clouds into different momentum states. Upon recombination to the ground state, the fidelity measurements obtained provide information about the sensitivity of the interferometer. Ideally, we want to push the capabilities of our system to be able to detect the smallest possible acceleration signal. This PhD project aims to theoretically and experimentally demonstrate the shaken-lattice interferometer with ultracold atoms trapped in an optical lattice for inertial sensing applications.