We experimentally demonstrate that an atom-optics kicked rotor can remove the interference signal due to chosen interferometer paths in a four-pulse de Broglie wave atom interferometer. The interferometer output is dominated by two degenerate spatial loops: the nonreciprocal “trapezoid” loop and the reciprocal “figure-8” loop. By applying the kicked rotor sequence at a particular time we suppressed the contribution of the “trapezoid” loop to the interferometer signal while preserving the contribution due to the “figure-8” loop. When the degeneracy is present, the interferometer is sensitive to both rotation and linear acceleration. When the degeneracy is lifted the interferometer is insensitive to linear acceleration, but still sensitive to rotation. The suppression of nonreciprocal loops in an atom interferometer is valuable for rotation sensing.

• Received 3 July 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.78.053625