Figure 2

Space-time diagram and pulse timings of a multi-loop interferometer. The upper diagram shows the timing of the \(\pi /2\) beam splitting at position (a) in Fig. 1, \(\pi \) mirror pulses at position (b) and (d) in Fig. 1, and relaunch at position (c) in Fig. 1 as well as the recombination (\(\pi /2\)) pulse at (a). Non-opaque lines indicate an implementation with the minimum of two loops (\(n=1\)) and opaque lines a four-loop interferometer (\(n=2\)). The interferometer can be extended to 2n loops closed with a \(\pi /2\) pulse at 4nT by introducing relaunches at \(r\cdot 4T\) for \(r\in (1,2,\ldots ,n-1)\) (position (a) in Fig. 1). The lower diagram shows the time-dependent intensities of the beam splitting pulses \(I_{\mathrm {bs}}\) and relaunches \(I_{\mathrm {rl}}\). Diagrams are not to scale, neglect pulse shaping and the initial launch before the atoms enter the interferometer.