Self-Calibrated Atom-Interferometer Gyroscope by Modulating Atomic Velocities

Atom-interferometer gyroscopes have attracted much attention for their potential superior long-term stability and extremely low drift. For such high precision instrument, a self-calibration to achieve an absolute rotation measurement is highly demanded. Here we propose and demonstrate a self-calibration of the atomic gyroscope. The calibration is realized by using the detuning of laser frequency to control the atomic velocity thus to modulate the scale factor of the gyroscope. The modulation determines the order and the initial phase of the interference stripe, thus eliminates the ambiguity caused by the periodicity of the interferometric signal. The calibration method is verified by measuring the Earth's rotation. Long-term stable and self-calibrated atom-interferometer gyros can find important applications in the fields of fundamental physics and long-time navigation.