Eur. Phys. J. D 44, 419-425 (2007)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2007-00218-2

Influence of lasers propagation delay on the sensitivity of atom interferometers

LNE-SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris, LNE, CNRS, UPMC, 61 avenue de l'Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France

Corresponding author: ^a julien.legouet@obspm.fr

Received: 20 December 2006
Revised: 23 March 2007
Published online: 29 June 2007

Abstract

In atom interferometers based on two photon transitions, the delay induced by the difference of the laser beams paths makes the interferometer sensitive to the fluctuations of the frequency of the lasers. We first study, in the general case, how the laser frequency noise affects the performance of the interferometer measurement. Our calculations are compared with the measurements performed on our cold atom gravimeter based on stimulated Raman transitions. We finally extend this study to the case of cold atom gradiometers.