Hannover 2010 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 64: Matterwave Optics II
Q 64.5: Vortrag
Freitag, 12. März 2010, 15:00–15:15, A 320
Space Atom Interferometer (SAI) — •Malte Schmidt1, Guglielmo Tino2, Philippe Bouyer3, Ernst Rasel4, Wolfgang Ertmer4, Klaus Sengstock5, Arnaud Landragin6, Massimo Inguscio7, Wolfgang Schleich8, Reinhold Walser8, Claus Laemmerzahl9, Kai Bongs10, and Achim Peters1 — 1Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin — 2Università di Firenze — 3Institut d’Optique, Orsay — 4Institut für Quantenoptik, Hannover — 5Universität Hamburg — 6SYRTE, Paris — 7LENS, Firenze — 8Universität Ulm — 9ZARM, Bremen — 10University of Birmingham
Since 1992, matter wave interferometry has been used in many laboratories for a variety of fundamental physics experiments, e.g. measurement of the fine-structure and gravity constants. However, due to the complexity of these experiments, they were confined to laboratory environments. In recent years, however, efforts have been undertaken to develop mobile atom interferometers. These new sensors open up the possibility to perform on-site high-precision measurements of rotations, gravity gradients as well as absolute accelerations.
We present the SAI project (ESA contract 20578/07/NL/VJ) that investigates both experimentally and theoretically the different aspects of placing atom interferometers in space: the equipment needs, the resulting device sensitivities, and what physics might be done using such systems. For these purposes, the project brings together European institutions to share their mutual expertise and to collaborate on the construction of an atom interferometer testbed geared towards future applications in space. We give an overview of the sensor’s ultra-compact design and report on the status of its first completed subsystems.