Kumarakrishnan, Anantharaman2018-11-212018-11-212018-08-072018-11-21http://hdl.handle.net/10315/35562A variety of experimental techniques and equipment for the measurement of inertial effects are herein presented. The bulk of the work relates to improvements to an existing local gravitational acceleration "little-g'' measurement apparatus. These improvements are predicted to push the statistical uncertainty in the measurement of g to less than 1 part-per-billion (ppb). To accomplish this goal, several other projects were undertaken. These include a finite-element model of the magnetic field coil setup used in the experimental apparatus, as well as the design and construction of a hermetically-sealed diode laser system with excellent long-term frequency stability. Additionally, a direct digital synthesis-based frequency generator was designed and built for a proposed frequency-domain atom interferometer experiment. Finally, a side-project involving the evaluation of the magnetic field uniformity/stability of a commercial optical isolator was performed, and its results are presented as an appendix.enAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.Atomic physicsElectronic Thesis or Dissertation2018-11-21Atomic physicsInterferometryInertial sensingGravimetryCold atomsTrapped atomsLaser development