A general method for evaluation of effective Raman wavefront and phase shift in atom interferometry

Atom interferometry is an advanced optical manipulation tool of atoms in precision measurement field. Wavefront aberrations of the Raman beam have become one of the major obstacles impeding the improvement of measurement accuracy. Beforehand measurement of laser wavefront is impractical due to the further wavefront deterioration during optical mounting. In this work, we present a general method for evaluating the effective Raman wavefront that atoms experience and the corresponding phase shift of interferometric fringes. The method extracts the effective Zernike polynomial terms and reconstructs the wavefront using optimal estimation theory. The evaluation accuracy and convergence speed are discussed by simulation. The results predict the method adaptability and provide strong support on analytical and numerical reference for wavefront error compensation.