A portable magneto-optical trap with prospects for atom interferometry in civil engineering

The high precision and scalable technology offered by atom interferometry has the opportunity to profoundly affect gravity surveys, enabling the detection of features of either smaller size or greater depth. While such systems are already starting to enter into the commercial market, significant red...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences physical, and engineering sciences, 2017-08, Vol.375 (2099), p.20160238-20160238
Main Authors: Hinton, A., Perea-Ortiz, M., Winch, J., Briggs, J., Freer, S., Moustoukas, D., Powell-Gill, S., Squire, C., Lamb, A., Rammeloo, C., Stray, B., Voulazeris, G., Zhu, L., Kaushik, A., Lien, Y.-H., Niggebaum, A., Rodgers, A., Stabrawa, A., Boddice, D., Plant, S. R., Tuckwell, G. W., Bongs, K., Metje, N., Holynski, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atom interferometry
Civil engineering
Gradiometry
Gravimetry
Gravitation
Gravity
Interferometry
Magnetic measurement
Optical traps
Power consumption
Survey
Weight reduction
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The high precision and scalable technology offered by atom interferometry has the opportunity to profoundly affect gravity surveys, enabling the detection of features of either smaller size or greater depth. While such systems are already starting to enter into the commercial market, significant reductions are required in order to reach the size, weight and power of conventional devices. In this article, the potential for atom interferometry based gravimetry is assessed, suggesting that the key opportunity resides within the development of gravity gradiometry sensors to enable drastic improvements in measurement time. To push forward in realizing more compact systems, techniques have been pursued to realize a highly portable magneto-optical trap system, which represents the core package of an atom interferometry system. This can create clouds of 107 atoms within a system package of 20 l and 10 kg, consuming 80 W of power. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Quantum technology for the 21st century’.
ISSN:1364-503X
1471-2962
DOI:10.1098/rsta.2016.0238