Continuous Cold-Atom Inertial Sensor with 1  nrad/sec Rotation Stability

International audienceWe report the operation of a cold-atom inertial sensor which continuously captures the rotation signal. Using a joint interrogation scheme, where we simultaneously prepare a cold-atom source and operate an atom interferometer (AI), enables us to eliminate the dead times. We show that such continuous operation improves the short-term sensitivity of AIs, and demonstrate a rotation sensitivity of 100 nrad/sec/Hz−−−√ in a cold-atom gyroscope of 11 cm2 Sagnac area. We also demonstrate a rotation stability of 1 nrad/sec at 104 sec of integration time, which represents the state of the art for atomic gyroscopes. The continuous operation of cold-atom inertial sensors will lead to large area AIs at their full sensitivity potential, determined by the quantum noise limit