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arXiv:2110.04498 · Scientific Reports

Bespoke magnetic field design for a magnetically shielded cold atom interferometer

Peter J. Hobson, Jamie Vovrosh, Ben Stray, Michael Packer, Jonathan Winch, Niall Holmes, Farzad Hayati, K. McGovern, Richard W Bowtell, Matthew J. Brookes, Kai Bongs, T. M. Fromhold, Michael Holynski

Published Jun 22, 2022• 18 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract Quantum sensors based on cold atoms are being developed which produce measurements of unprecedented accuracy. Due to shifts in atomic energy levels, quantum sensors often have stringent requirements on their internal magnetic field environment. Typically, background magnetic fields are attenuated using high permeability magnetic shielding, with the cancelling of residual and introduction of quantisation fields implemented with coils inside the shield. The high permeability shield, however, distorts all magnetic fields, including those generated inside the sensor. Here, we demonstrate a solution by designing multiple coils overlaid on a 3D-printed former to generate three uniform and three constant linear gradient magnetic fields inside the capped cylindrical magnetic shield of a cold atom interferometer. The fields are characterised in-situ and match their desired forms to high accuracy. For example, the uniform transverse field, Bx, deviates by less than 0.2% over more than 40% of the length of the shield. We also map the field directly using the cold atoms and investigate the potential of the coil system to reduce bias from the quadratic Zeeman effect. This coil design technology enables targeted field compensation over large spatial volumes and has the potential to reduce systematic shifts and noise in numerous cold atom systems.

DOI
10.1038/s41598-022-13979-4

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Abstract Quantum sensors based on cold atoms are being developed which produce measurements of unprecedented accuracy. Due to shifts in atomic energy levels, quantum sensors often have stringent requirements on their internal magnetic field environment. Typically, background magnetic fields are attenuated using high permeability magnetic shielding, with the cancelling of residual and introduction of quantisation fields implemented with coils inside the shield. The high permeability shield, however, distorts all magnetic fields, including those generated inside the sensor. Here, we demonstrate a solution by designing multiple coils overlaid on a 3D-printed former to generate three uniform and three constant linear gradient magnetic fields inside the capped cylindrical magnetic shield of a cold atom interferometer. The fields are characterised in-situ and match their desired forms to high accuracy. For example, the uniform transverse field, Bx, deviates by less than 0.2% over more than 40% of the length of the shield. We also map the field directly using the cold atoms and investigate the potential of the coil system to reduce bias from the quadratic Zeeman effect. This coil design technology enables targeted field compensation over large spatial volumes and has the potential to reduce systematic shifts and noise in numerous cold atom systems.
The accurate control of magnetic fields is a cornerstone of multiple emerging quantum technologies. These technologies often require passive high permeability magnetic shielding and internal active field-generating coils to create their own bespoke magnetic field landscape. However, magnetic fields generated by coils are distorted by high permeability shielding, preventing the accurate and efficient generation of the desired field environment. Here, we design a cylindrical four-layer magnetic shield with an interior hybrid active-passive coil system that is explicitly optimised to include the electromagnetic coupling between the active and passive components. We use a combination of analytical methods and numerical simulations to determine the shield parameters - geometry, thickness, and access hole positions - to maximise the passive shielding efficiency and minimise the shield-induced Johnson noise and weight. Then, we apply an analytical formulation of the magnetic field, which accounts for the interaction with the magnetic shield, to design nine orthogonal hybrid active-passive field-generating coils inside the shield. The coils will be manufactured on thin low-via flex-PCBs near the shield's interior surface and generate three uniform fields and six gradient fields that deviate by less than 0.4% and 2%, respectively, over an internal cylindrical region extending over half the diameter and length of the innermost shield layer. These hybrid active-passive coils can accurately remove deviations in the background field or generate various complex magnetic field landscapes. Consequently, the hybrid shield provides an ideal platform for miniaturising and commercialising quantum technologies that require precisely-controlled magnetic fields within a low-noise environment.
We design and develop a high-performance magnetic shielding system for a long baseline fountain-type atom interferometer. The shielding system is achieved by a combination of passive shielding using permalloy and active compensation with coils. An 11.4 m-long three-layer cylindrical shield is completed by the process of welding, local annealing, and entire annealing. The active compensations compress the residual magnetic field to 8.0 nT max-to-min and the corresponding gradient below 30 nT/m over 10 m along the axial direction in which external compensation, internal compensation, and constant magnetic field (C-field) compensation reduce the inhomogeneities to 25.0, 12.6, and 1.7 nT (standard deviation) sequentially. We estimate that this system could reduce the systematic error of the quadratic Zeeman shift to the 10−13 level for the weak equivalence principle test with a simultaneous 85Rb–87Rb dual-species atom interferometer.
Inertial sensors that measure the acceleration of ultracold atoms promise unrivalled accuracy compared to classical equivalents. However, atomic systems are sensitive to various perturbations, including magnetic fields, which can introduce measurement inaccuracies. To address this challenge, we have designed, manufactured, and validated a magnetic field stabilisation system for a quantum sensor based on atom interferometry. We solve for the magnetic field generated by surface currents in-between a pair of bi-rectangular coils and approximate the surface current using discrete wires. The wires are wound by-hand onto machined panels which are retrofitted onto the existing mounting structure of the sensor without interfering with any experimental components. Along the central 60mm of the y-axis, which aligns with the trajectory of the atoms during interferometry, the coils are measured to generate an independent uniform axial magnetic field with a strength of Bz=22.81±0.01 μT/A [mean±2σstd. error] and an independent linear axial field gradient of strength dBz/dy=10.6±0.1 μT/Am. The uniform Bz field is measured to deviate by a maximum value of 1.3% in the same region, which is a factor of three times more uniform than the previously-used on-sensor rectangular Bz compensation set.
The miniaturization of quantum sensors is a popular trend for the development of quantum technology. One of the key components of these sensors is a coil which is used for spin modulation and manipulation. The bi-planar coils have the advantage of producing three-dimensional magnetic fields with only two planes of current confinement, whereas the traditional Helmholtz coils require three-dimensional current distribution. Thus, the bi-planar coils are compatible with the current micro-fabrication process and are quite suitable for the compact design of the chip-scale atomic devices that require stable or modulated magnetic fields. This paper presents a design of a miniature bi-planar coil. Both the magnetic fields produced by the coils and their inhomogeneities were designed theoretically. The magnetic field gradient is a crucial parameter for the coils, especially for generating magnetic fields in very small areas. We used a NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) method based on the relaxation of 131Xe nuclear spins to measure the magnetic field gradient in situ. This is the first time that the field inhomogeneities of the field of such small bi-planar coils have been measured. Our results indicate that the designed gradient caused error is 0.08 for the By and the Bx coils, and the measured gradient caused error using the nuclear spin relaxation method is 0.09±0.02, suggesting that our method is suitable for measuring gradients. Due to the poor sensitivity of our magnetometer under a large Bz bias field, we could not measure the Bz magnetic field gradient. Our method also helps to improve the gradients of the miniature bi-planar coil design, which is critical for chip-scale atomic devices.
\n\tHigh flux of cold atoms is one of the key technologies to realize high;precision cold atom interferometer. The approach of concatenation of two;dimensional Magnetic Optical Trap (2D;MOT) and three;dimensional Magnetic Optical Trap (3D;MOT) is generally used to obtain high flux of cold atoms. The magnetic field distribution of 2D;MOT is the key influencing factor in this appliance. In this paper, three different(rectangular, race;track and saddle) mathematical models of Anti;Helmholtz coils in 2D;MOT were established to analyze the magnetic field distribution. Then, the magnetic field zero drift and the change of magnetic field gradient caused by the error of eccentricity, coils asymmetry, parallelism and inside diameter asymmetry were analyzed, which were produced in the manufacture and installation process using finite element analysis. Results show that the magnetic field gradient provided by saddle coils is more conducive to produce high flux of cold atoms when eccentricity error is less than 1.14 mm, coils asymmetry error is less than 0.016 A and parallelism error is less than 1.02°. This work may provide theoretical guidance for the design and fabrication of magnetic system of 2D;MOT of cold atom interferometer. © 2016, Editorial Board of Journal of Infrared and Laser Engineering. All right reserved.
In a cold atom interferometer, a bias magnetic field, usually generated by a solenoid or a set of coils, is used to select specific Raman transitions of atoms in the interference region, and its inhomogeneity leads to a Zeeman-effect-induced error for the measurement. To improve the measurement’s accuracy further, we propose a simple method to compensate for the non-uniformity of the bias field by reversing the direction and tuning the value of the current running through the pair of quadrupole coils used for magneto-optical trap (MOT). To smoothen the field with MOT coils, the current applied should be controlled timely and precisely, which was done with a fast-responding electric circuit we designed and built. We also used Raman spectroscopy to characterize the magnetic field profile without and with our method applied, which shows that the length of the homogeneous field (where the fluctuation of magnetic strength is less than 10%) is expanded from 81.87 mm to 101.64 mm. From our calculations, with the free evolution time T of 30 ms, the quadratic Zeeman-effect-induced phase shift Δϕzeeman can be reduced by 76%, which reduces the quadratic Zeeman-effect-induced error of measured gravity Δgzeeman to a quarter of that without our method applied (from 1.745 mGal to 0.418 mGal). Simulation and experiment prove that this method is effective. This method can also be used in other atom interferometers, especially compact systems.