Patent ID: 7978334

Claim:
A rate gyro, of the matter-wave type, allowing the measurement of the speed of rotation along a given measurement axis, said rate gyro comprising at least: an electronic chip comprising a measurement plane; means for generating, capturing and cooling a cloud of ultracold atoms and an atom trap allowing the cloud of ultracold atoms to be immobilized at a predetermined distance from said measurement plane; the trap comprising, on the one hand, conducting wires integrated into said chip and, on the other hand, external means for generating a magnetic field resulting in a magnetic field local minimum; means for separating the atom cloud into two packets of atoms, means for displacing said packets, said means also allowing the two packets to be recombined into a single atom cloud, the whole of the two packets having traveled around a first closed area between the separation and recombination; means for optical measurement of the phase-shift introduced into the atom cloud after recombination; electronic means for monitoring, controlling and feedback control of the various means of the rate gyro; wherein the separation and displacement means essentially comprise a first main conducting wire a second conducting wire and a third conducting wire substantially parallel to one another within the region of the trap, the second conducting wire and the third conducting wire being disposed symmetrically on either side of the first wire, the second wire and the third wire carrying AC currents with the same amplitude and frequency flowing in the same direction, the maximum amplitude and the frequency of said currents being sufficient to create, within the atom cloud, an AC magnetic field with a higher intensity than the magnetic intensity required for the separation of the atom cloud into two packets of atoms along the axis of polarization of said field, the amplitude of the DC current I DC flowing in the first wire being able to be modified in the course of the measurement.