High-accuracy determination of the beam divergence error in free-fall absolute gravimeters

Abstract

We investigate the bias due to the beam divergence of the collimator in a free-fall absolute gravimeter of type FG5X. First, we measure the beam parameters with a Shack-Hartmann sensor. Then, we use the parameters to simulate the relative gravitational acceleration error of an FG5X gravimeter, which employs an unbalanced Mach-Zehnder laser interferometer. This investigation we do with four different commercial collimators, providing different divergence angles. We compare the results to real gravity measurements using the same collimators. The larger the divergence angle, and the bigger the relative length error, the bigger is the bias in the gravity measurements. A good agreement between theory and experiment is found, resulting in a relative bias of −2.77(24)⋅10−9 ( −2.72(24)  μGal) for our standard collimator of type Thorlabs TC25APC, which is usually used for free-fall acceleration determinations. The outcome is also important for the realization of the SI unit kilogram via Kibble balance experiments that, on one side, employ laser interferometers for velocity measurements, and, on the other side, require accurate values of the gravitational acceleration. For example, if this divergence error is not corrected in the Kibble balance, then the mass determination would be biased by 2.77(24)  μg kg−1 (numbers are valid only for our gravimeter with our collimator and fiber).