Abstract:

In this paper, we present a new type of atom-light accelerometer (ALA) based on use of an atom-light hybrid interferometer. At present, all-optical accelerometers are the most commonly used and most stable accelerometers on the market, owing to their small size and high accuracy. However, due to measurement bandwidth limitations, their practical application range is limited. Hence, we designed a new type of accelerometer to address this challenge. The atom-light hybrid interferometer is first constructed in the atomic system through the stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) process, and the elastic mass of the accelerometer is formed by a mirror. When the mass is subjected to acceleration on the experimental platform, it will perceive the change in external displacement, thereby introducing the phase into the interferometer. Through the change of the interference fringe, the change of the external phase and the displacement can be determined; hence, the magnitude of the acceleration can be obtained. The primary advantage of the atom-light accelerometer is that the Stokes field generated by the SRS process is phase related to the atomic spin-wave, which ensures the stability of the device phase. Secondly, the adjustable bandwidth of the device increases its scope of application. Finally, theoretical calculations show that its measurement accuracy exceeds the standard quantum limit (SQL) under ideal conditions.

Key words: stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), atom-light hybrid interferometer, atom-light accelerometer (ALA), intensity detection, balanced homodyne detection, measurement accuracy