A compact atom interferometer for field gravity measurements

We report a compact atom interferometer in the Mach–Zehnder geometry for gravity measurement. The local gravity is measured to be 9.791 589 m s−2 with relative sensitivity Δg reaching 2.9 × 10−7 g in 320 s. Despite the fast development in the past two decades in the field of precision measurements, making atom interferometers transportable with guaranteed resolution for field applications is still one of the main focuses. Our compact atom interferometer aims to be functioned as an inertial sensor for field applications such as resource exploration outside of labs.