Off-resonant Raman transition impact in an atom interferometer

Abstract

We study the influence of off-resonant two-photon transitions on high-precision measurements with atom interferometers based on stimulated Raman transitions. These resonances induce a two-photon light shift on the resonant Raman condition. The impact of this effect is investigated in two highly sensitive experiments using a gravimeter and a gyroscope-accelerometer. We show that it can lead to significant systematic phase shifts, which have to be taken into account in order to achieve the best performances in terms of accuracy and stability.