A quantum sensor: simultaneous precision gravimetry and magnetic gradiometry with a Bose-Einstein condensate

A Bose-Einstein condensate is used as an atomic source for a high precision sensor. A 5 × 10 atom F=1 spinor condensate of Rb is released into free fall for up to 750 ms and probed with a T = 130 ms Mach-Zehnder atom interferometer based on Bragg transitions. The Bragg interferometer simultaneously addresses the three magnetic states, |mf = 1, 0,−1〉, facilitating a simultaneous measurement of the acceleration due to gravity with a 1000 run precision of ∆g/g= 1.45× 10−9 and the magnetic field gradient to a precision 120 pT/m.