Hybridizing high bandwidth optomechanical accelerometers with atom interferometers for improved inertial measurements.

The field of optomechanics has led to the development of compact inertially sensitive accelerometers capable of gravimetry. Such a device is promising for the applications of inertial navigation, accelerometry and gravimetry; however, being a relative accelerometer, these devices are prone to low-frequency signal drifts. In a similar development trajectory to inertially sensitive optomechanical sensors, the field of atom interferometry provides long-term stable inertial measurements. However, absolute accelerometers, such as atom interferometers, suffer from limited bandwidth and are only capable of measuring signals with frequencies below their cycle frequency. In this presentation, we discuss a sensor fusion which incorporates an inertially sensitive optomechanical oscillator directly into the retroreflector of the atom interferometer. By combining an optmechanical sensor into the inertial reference of the atom interferometer, we effectively hybridize the two sensors providing maximal signal overlap between the two. This hybrid sensor design combines high bandwidth inertially sensitive optomechanical sensors with the long-term stability provided by atom interferometers. Such a hybrid sensor yields a promising device that would be capable of measuring accelerations in a vibrationally noisy environment with a stability that fulfills the requirements of inertial navigation or airborne gravimetry. Furthermore, we discuss optimization of design parameters of the optomechanical sensor, such as the resonance which can be tailored to increase the hybrid sensor performance.