Sensitivity limits of a Raman atom interferometer as a gravity gradiometer

We evaluate the sensitivity of a dual cloud atom interferometer to the measurement of vertical gravity gradient. We study the influence of most relevant experimental parameters on noise and long term drifts. Results are also applied to the case of doubly differential measurements of the gravitational signal from local source masses. We achieve a short-term sensitivity of 3 × 10^−9 g/ sqrt(Hz) to differential gravity acceleration, limited by the quantum projection noise of the instrument. Active control of the most critical parameters allows us to reach a resolution of 5 × 10^−11 g after 8000 s on the measurement of differential gravity acceleration. The long-term stability is compatible with a measurement of the gravitational constant G at the level of 10^−4 after an integration time of about 100 h.