Michelson laser interferometer-based vibration noise contribution measurement method for cold atom interferometry gravimeter*

Abstract

The measurement performance of the atom interferometry absolute gravimeter is strongly affected by the ground vibration noise. We propose a vibration noise evaluation scheme using a Michelson laser interferometer constructed by the intrinsic Raman laser of the atomic gravimeter. Theoretical analysis shows that the vibration phase measurement accuracy is better than 4 mrad, which corresponds to about 10−10 g accuracy for a single shot gravity measurement. Compared with the commercial seismometer or accelerometer, this method is a simple, low cost, direct, and fully synchronized measurement of the vibration phase which should benefit the development of the atomic gravimeter. On the other side, limited by equivalence principle, the result of the laser interferometer is not absolute but relative vibration measurement. Triangular cap method could be used to evaluation the noise contribution of vibration, which is a different method from others and should benefit the development of the atomic gravimeter.