We realize beam splitters and mirrors for atom waves by employing a sequence of light pulses rather than individual ones. In this way we can tailor atom interferometers with improved sensitivity and accuracy. We demonstrate our method of composite pulses by creating a symmetric matter-wave interferometer which combines the advantages of conventional Bragg- and Raman-type concepts. This feature leads to an interferometer with a high immunity to technical noise allowing us to devise a large-area Sagnac gyroscope yielding a phase shift of 6.5 rad due to the Earth's rotation. With this device we achieve a rotation rate precision of 120  nrad s(-1) Hz(-1/2) and determine the Earth's rotation rate with a relative uncertainty of 1.2%.

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Novel ultra-broad bandwidth light sources enabling unprecedented sub-2 microm axial resolution over the 400 nm-1700 nm wavelength range have been developed and evaluated with respect to their feasibility for clinical ultrahigh resolution optical coherence tomography (UHR OCT) applications. The state-of-the-art light sources described here include a compact Kerr lens mode locked Ti:sapphire laser (lambdaC = 785 nm, delta lambda = 260 nm, P(out) = 50 mW) and different nonlinear fibre-based light sources with spectral bandwidths (at full width at half maximum) up to 350 nm at lambdaC = 1130 nm and 470 nm at lambdaC = 1375 nm. In vitro UHR OCT imaging is demonstrated at multiple wavelengths in human cancer cells, animal ganglion cells as well as in neuropathologic and ophthalmic biopsies in order to compare and optimize UHR OCT image contrast, resolution and penetration depth.

We present a compact and transportable inertial sensor for precision sensing of rotations and accelerations. The sensor consists of a dual Mach-Zehnder-type atom interferometer operated with laser-cooled 87 Rb. Raman processes are employed to coherently manipulate the matter waves. We describe and characterize the experimental apparatus. A method for passing from a compact geometry to an extended interferometer with three independent atom-light interaction zones is proposed and investigated. The extended geometry will enhance the sensitivity by more than two orders of magnitude which is necessary to achieve sensitivities better than 10 −8 rad/s/ √ Hz.