In an example, an optical gimbal is described, the optical gimbal comprising: a pulse generator configured to generate at least two coherent beam splitting pulses; a first optical beam director configured to tilt the vector of the beam splitting pulses by an angle θ; an atom source configured to allow the beam splitting pulses to manipulate trapped atoms within the atom source; a processor configured to receive the angle θ, and control the pulse generator and the beam director; a detector coupled to the atom source configured to measure a final population of the atoms in different states.