Fundamental Limitations of Cavity-Assisted Atom Interferometry

Abstract

Atom interferometry inside an optical cavity was demonstrated in Hamilton et al. (Phys Rev Lett 114:100405, 2015 [1]), where they show a \(\pi /2-\pi -\pi /2\) interferometer with caesium atoms loaded horizontally into a vertical 40 cm cavity (Fig. 6.1). In this proof of principle experiment, the small cavity mode volume placed a tight constraint on the total measurement time, which was just 20 ms.