Rotation sensing with tractor atom interferometry*

Atom interferometers have become a powerful tool for tests of fundamental physics and precision measurements related to gravity and inertial sensing. We have proposed tractor atom interferometry (TAI), in which the atoms are confined in 3-D potentials throughout the entire interferometer sequence. TAI guarantees interferometric-path closure, inhibits wave-packet dispersion, minimizes the geometric footprint of the apparatus, provides flexibility in interferometric pathways, and is robust against platform rotation and acceleration. In this poster, we report on experimental progress on a proof-of-principle TAI system. Rb-87 atoms will be cooled down into a Bose-Einstein condensate and then trapped in an optical lattice, where we split, hold, and recombine the ultracold atoms. Moreover, we theoretically show that rotation sensing based on TAI is able to achieve 10-nrad/s sensitivity with TAI implemented on counter-rotating azimuthal lattices with a ring diameter of 600 nm. A possible realization of such a trap is proposed in the poster.