Atom interferometry with the Sr optical clock transition

Understand

We report on the realization of a matter-wave interferometer based on single-photon interaction on the ultra-narrow optical clock transition of strontium atoms.

• We experimentally demonstrated its operation as a gravimeter and as a gravity gradiometer.
• No reduction of interferometric contrast was observed up to an interferometer time $2T=10$ ms, limited by geometric constraints of the apparatus.
• In the gradiometric configuration, the sensitivity approaches the shot noise limit.