We study decoherence in continuously cooled atom interferometers by performing Raman-Ramsey fringe measurementsin a continuous beam of 3D-sub-Doppler-cooled rubidium atoms. The atom beam is produced by atwo-stage cold atom source that is designed to mitigate the decoherence of atomic interference caused by coolinginduceduorescence. The atom beam source produces a collimated beam of over 109 atoms/s that is cooled bypolarization gradient cooling to temperatures as low as 14 μK. We infer the potential performance of this atombeam source in a cold-atom gyroscope and use numerical models of motion in 6 degrees of freedom to study theexpected performance on dynamic platforms.
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