Fig. 4: Plots comparing the acceleration sensitivities of a space-based (a0 → 0) MZ interferometer (black curve) and an atomic FPI (red dashed curve) with ki = 0.0596k0, w = 1 μm and d = 4 μm.

Here the minimum change in acceleration that can be detected, δa, is plotted as a function of length L, for varying finesse values (a) \({\mathcal{F}}=1\), (b) \({\mathcal{F}}=100\) and (c) \({\mathcal{F}}=400\). L is the initial distance between the BEC and the first barrier in an atomic FPI. For a MZ interferometer, the total interferometer length Lt = L + 2w + d. A particular finesse can be achieved while varying L, by manipulating barrier height accordingly. The sensitivity of an atomic FPI is better than that of the comparison MZ interferometer for high finesse and low length scales.