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Sensitive gravity-gradiometry with atom interferometry: progress towards an improved determination of the gravitational constant

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Published 24 September 2010 Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd
, , Focus on Atom Optics and its Applications Citation F Sorrentino et al 2010 New J. Phys. 12 095009 DOI 10.1088/1367-2630/12/9/095009

1367-2630/12/9/095009

Abstract

We present here the current status of our high-sensitivity gravity-gradiometer based on atom interferometry. In our apparatus, two clouds of laser-cooled rubidium atoms are launched in a fountain configuration and simultaneously interrogated by a Raman-pulse interferometry sequence. The system has recently been upgraded and its stability re-evaluated. We also discuss the recent progress of the experiment towards a precise determination of the Newtonian gravitational constant G. The signal-to-noise ratio and the long-term stability of the gravity gradiometer demonstrated interesting perspectives for pushing the G measurement precision below the 100 ppm level.

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