An atom interferometer using a Bose-Einstein condensate of $^{87}$Rb atoms isutilized for the measurement of magnetic field gradients. Composite opticalpulses are used to construct a spatially symmetric Mach-Zehnder geometry. Usinga biased interferometer we demonstrate the ability to measure small residualforces in our system at the position of the atoms. These are a residualmagnetic field gradient of 15$\pm$2 mG/cm and and an inertial acceleration of0.08$\pm$0.02 m/s$^2$. Our method has important applications in the calibrationof precision measurement devices and the reduction of systematic errors.
展开▼
