Development of new free-fall absolute gravimeters

The design and first results of two free-fall absolute gravimeters are reported: a stationary gravimeter is designed and can be used as a reference system and a portable gravimeter is aimed at field measurements. The determination of the acceleration due to gravity is done interferometrically in both instruments. The whole fringe signal is digitized by a high-speed analogue-to-digital converter, which is locked to a rubidium frequency standard. This fringe recording and processing is novel as compared with commercial free-fall gravimeters, which use an electronic zero-crossing discrimination. Advantages such as the application of a zero-phase-shifting digital filter to the digitized data are depicted. The portable gravimeter's mechanics deviate from the conventional type. Springs are used to accelerate and decelerate the carriage supporting the falling object. A detailed uncertainty budget is given for both gravimeters. The combined standard uncertainty for the portable and for the stationary gravimeter is estimated at 38.8 mu Gal and 16.6 mu Gal, respectively. The corresponding statistical uncertainties are 1.6 mu Gal (over one day of measurement) and 0.6 mu Gal (over one month of measurement). The different designs and dimensions of the new free-fall gravimeters can help to reveal unknown or so far underestimated systematic effects. The assessments of the uncertainties due to seismic noise and shock vibrations, and electronic phase shifts give validity to this assumption