High Dynamic-Range Atom Interferometry

Cold atom interferometers are among the most sensitive instruments for measuring inertial forces, such as gravity, gravity gradients, accelerations, and rotations. As a phase measuring instrument, the dynamic range of a single interferometer is limited to 2$\pi$ radians, and a trade-off exists between dynamic range and sensitivity that is defined only by the experimental signal-to-noise ratio. We propose and experimentally realize techniques that overcome this limitation by performing interferometric measurements with multiple scale factors, which vary between experimental cycles or within the same one. We demonstrate orders of magnitude gain in dynamic range with minimal loss of sensitivity.