Hannover 2010 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 55: Poster II

Q 55.32: Poster

Thursday, March 11, 2010, 16:00–19:00, Lichthof

Active low- frequency vibration isolation for high precision atom interferometry — •Christian Freier, Alexander Senger, and Achim Peters — Humboldt Universität Berlin

The performance of high precision atom interferometers is often limited by Raman phase noise introduced by vibrations of the interferometers optical components. We present an active low frequency vibration isolation based on a commercial MinusK passive vibration isolation platform which isolates one key component, a retro-reflecting mirror, from environmental vibrations. The system combines an active system with the spring based negative-stiffness passive isolation of a MinusK vibration isolation platform. The active stage measures residual vibrations using a commercial weak-motion seismometer and feeds them back into a voice coil actuator to cancel them out. The passive vibration isolation only, with a resonant frequency of 0.5 Hz, reduces the amount of vibrations by a factor of 100-1000 from 10Hz to 100Hz. We characterize the performance of the platform with the active system enabled and show tests of interferometer fringes with and without active vibration isolation.