Coriolis compensation via gravity in a matter-wave interferometer

Abstract

Matter-wave interferometry offers insights into fundamental physics and provides a precise tool for sensing. Improving the sensitivity of such experiments requires increasing the time particles spend in the interferometer, which can lead to dephasing in the presence of velocity-dependent phase shifts such as those produced by the Earth’s rotation. Here we present a technique to passively compensate for the Coriolis effect using gravity, without the need for any moving components. We demonstrate the technique with fullerenes in a long-baseline molecule interferometer by measuring the gravitational and Coriolis phase shifts and obtaining the maximum visibility one would expect in the absence of the Coriolis effect.

Keywords

• matter-wave interference
• inertial forces
• Coriolis effect
• Sagnac phase