Local gravity measurement with the combination of atom interferometry and Bloch oscillations

Abstract

We present a local measurement of gravity combining Bloch oscillations and atom interferometry. With a falling distance of 0.8 mm, we achieve a sensitivity of $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}7}\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\text{g}$ with an integration time of 300 s. No bias associated with the Bloch oscillations has been measured. A contrast decay with Bloch oscillations has been observed and attributed to the spatial quality of the laser beams. A simple experimental configuration has been adopted where a single retroreflected laser beam performs atom launches, stimulated Raman transitions, and Bloch oscillations. The combination of Bloch oscillations and atom interferometry can thus be accomplished with an apparatus no more complex than a standard atomic gravimeter.