Asymmetric Talbot-Lau interferometry for inertial sensing

We study in detail a peculiar configuration of the Talbot-Lau matter wave interferometer, characterized by unequal distances between the two diffraction gratings and the observation plane. We refer to this apparatus as the “asymmetric Talbot-Lau setup.” Particular attention is given to its capabilities as an inertial sensor for particle and atomic beams, also in comparison with the classical moire ́ deflectometer. The present paper is motivated by possible experimental applications in the context of antimatter wave interferometry, including the measurement of the gravitational acceleration of antimatter particles. Therefore we focus our analysis on the current state of the art. To support our findings, we have also performed numerical simulations of realistic particle beams with varying speed distributions.