The atom interferometers that we are developing are based on the use of laser beam splitters, which allow to split and recombine atomic wave packets in a coherent way. Our experiments use free falling laser cooled atoms, or ultracold atoms produced by evaporative cooling, as probes of inertial fields, and light beamsplitters based on stimulated Raman transitions or Bragg diffraction. The use of cold atoms enable longer interaction times leading to a higher sensitivity to the inertial (...)

The use of atoms confined in a trap or in a guide allows in principle to increase drastically the interrogation time (to more than 1 s) keeping a compact apparatus. This also enables to develop new concepts of interferometers. The two important aspects in such developments are the study of the interaction with the trap and the choice of the most adapted architecture as a function of the measured quantity. Two technologies are especially adapted: laser traps (dipole traps) and atomic chips (...)