Opportunities / ENERGY, DEPARTMENT OF

Q-TAGG: Quantum Trapped-Atom Gravity Gradiometer

Description (excerpt)

The Quantum Trapped-Atom Gravity Gradiometer (Q?TAGG), developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, is a compact sensing platform designed to achieve extended atom interferometer interrogation times without the height required by conventional free?fall instruments. Ultracold atoms remain guided during interferometric evolution, providing a pathway to increased sensitivity within a compact architecture. The platform uses spatially multiplexed sensing, with multiple atomic sensing sites across one or more sensor heads operated under common or phase-referenced interrogation conditions. The resulting site-resolved phase measurements support estimation of spatially varying gravitational signals and differential processing of correlated disturbances. By combining a compact guided-atom architecture, spatial multiplexing, and suppression of correlated disturbances, Q?TAGG provides a pathway toward deployable quantum sensing for subsurface imaging, resource exploration, safeguards, and security applications. Overview Q?TAGG measures spatial variations in gravity using atom interferometric phase measurements acquired at distinct sensing locations. Optical pulses split, redirect, and recombine guided atomic wave packets. The resulting interferometric phase is sensitive to gravity and inertial acceleration along the relevant measurement axis, as well as to optical, trapping, and other instrument?related contributions. Multiple sensing locations are interrogated during a common measurement cycle, producing a synchronized spatial data set. After calibration and differential processing, relative phase measurements are used to estimate gravity field gradients and related spatial modes. The architecture also supports multiple spatially separated sensor heads for longer?baseline or distributed measurements. Technology Description Each sensor head prepares one or more ultracold atomic ensembles at respective locations within an optical guiding or trapping structure. The atomic ensembles are subjected to a common or phase?referenced interferometric pulse sequence and are read out on a site?resolved basis. Guiding the atoms during interrogation permits longer interaction times in a lower profile system than would be required for an equivalent free?fall distance. Because the sensing locations share common timing and an optical phase reference, their outputs are analyzed jointly. Differential and global estimation approaches are used to extract relative phase information, evalua …

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