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arXiv:2201.10203 · Physical Review A

Self-alignment of a large-area dual-atom-interferometer gyroscope using parameter-decoupled phase-seeking calibrations

Zhan-Wei Yao, Honghui Chen, Si-Bin Lu, Runbing Li, Ze-Xi Lu, Xiaoli Chen, Geng-Hua Yu, Min Jiang, Chuan Dong Sun, Wei-Tou Ni, Jin Wang, Mingsheng Zhan

Published Feb 17, 2021• 36 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We report a Mach-Zehnder-type dual-atom-interferometer gyroscope with an interrogation arm of 40-cm length and the interference area up to $1.2\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$. The precise angular alignment of the large-scale separated Raman lasers is demonstrated by seeking the phase intersection of Ramsey-$\mathrm{Bord}\stackrel{\ifmmode \acute{}\else \'{}\fi{}}{\mathrm{e}}$ interferometers after the gravity effect is compensated and by decoupling the velocity dependent cross-talk phase shifts, and applied to build the Mach-Zehnder atom interferometer. Then a compact inertial rotation sensor is realized based on dual large-area Mach-Zehnder atom interferometers by precisely aligning the large-scale separated Raman lasers, in which the coherence is well preserved and the common noise is differentially suppressed. The sensor presents a sensitivity of $1.5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}7}$ $\mathrm{rad}/\mathrm{s}/{\mathrm{Hz}}^{1/2}$, and a stability of $9.5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}10}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{rad}/\mathrm{s}$ at 23000 s. The absolute rotation measurement is carried out by adjusting the atomic velocity which corresponds to modulating the scale factor.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.103.023319

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We report a Mach-Zehnder-type dual-atom-interferometer gyroscope with an interrogation arm of 40-cm length and the interference area up to 1.2cm21.2\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}1.2cm2. The precise angular alignment of the large-scale separated Raman lasers is demonstrated by seeking the phase intersection of Ramsey-Borde\ifmmodeˊ\elseˊ\fi\mathrm{Bord}\stackrel{\ifmmode \acute{}\else \'{}\fi{}}{\mathrm{e}}Borde\ifmmodeˊ\elseˊ\fi interferometers after the gravity effect is compensated and by decoupling the velocity dependent cross-talk phase shifts, and applied to build the Mach-Zehnder atom interferometer. Then a compact inertial rotation sensor is realized based on dual large-area Mach-Zehnder atom interferometers by precisely aligning the large-scale separated Raman lasers, in which the coherence is well preserved and the common noise is differentially suppressed. The sensor presents a sensitivity of 1.5\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi10\ensuremath−71.5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}7}1.5\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi10\ensuremath−7 rad/s/Hz1/2\mathrm{rad}/\mathrm{s}/{\mathrm{Hz}}^{1/2}rad/s/Hz1/2, and a stability of 9.5\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi10\ensuremath−10rad/s9.5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}10}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{rad}/\mathrm{s}9.5\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi10\ensuremath−10rad/s at 23000 s. The absolute rotation measurement is carried out by adjusting the atomic velocity which corresponds to modulating the scale factor.
We propose and demonstrate a dynamical mirror compensation scheme to restore velocity immunity in a large-area dual-atom-interferometer gyroscope. In an ideal Mach-Zehnder configuration, the phase shift is inherently immune to atomic velocity, but this property is broken by the Earth's rotation via the Coriolis effect. We overcome this by actively rotating the Raman mirrors during the pulse sequence to cancel the time-dependent angular offset. The implementation relies on a decouplable calibration-compensation chain to remove rotation-induced time-dependent terms. The scheme is validated on a dual-atom-interferometer gyroscope with an interference area of 21.1 cm^2. After compensation, the phase's dependence on atomic velocity is reduced 40-fold, and the velocity contribution to scale-factor stability is evaluated to be 0.13 ppm. The sensor achieves a rotation sensitivity of 1.3\times10^{-8} rad/s/Hz^{1/2} and a stability of 1.9\times10^{-10} rad/s at 4500 s integration, together with a common-mode noise rejection ratio of up to 459, demonstrated in a seismic event. This work removes a key obstacle to scale-factor stabilization in atom-interferometer gyroscopes and paves the way for their applications in inertial navigation and geophysics.
We propose and demonstrate a method for calibrating atomic trajectories in a large-area dual-atom-interferometer gyroscope. The atom trajectories are monitored by modulating and delaying the Raman transition, and they are precisely calibrated by controlling the laser orientation and the bias magnetic field. To improve the immunity to the gravity effect and the common phase noise, the symmetry and the overlap of two large-area atomic interference loops are optimized by calibrating the atomic trajectories and by aligning the Raman-laser orientations. The dual-atom-interferometer gyroscope is applied in the measurement of the Earth's rotation. The sensitivity is $1.2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}6}$ rad $\mathrm{s}{}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ ${\text{Hz}}^{\ensuremath{-}1/2}$, and the long-term stability is $6.2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}8}$ rad/s at 2000 s.
We demonstrate a closed-loop light-pulse atom-interferometer inertial sensor that can realize continuous decoupled measurements of acceleration and rotation rate. The sensor operates with double-loop atom interferometers, which share the same Raman light pulses in a spatially separated Mach-Zehnder configuration and use continuous cold atomic beams propagating in opposite directions from two 2D+{\text{2D}}^{+}2D+ magneto-optical trappings. Acceleration and the rotation rate are decoupled and simultaneously measured by the sum and difference of dual-atom-interferometer signals, respectively. The sensitivities of inertial measurements are also increased to be approximately 1.86 times higher than that of a single atom interferometer. The acceleration phase shift is compensated in real time by phase locking these interferometers via the Raman laser phases from the sum-interferometer signal, and the gyroscope performance is improved. We achieve long-term stabilities of $6.1\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{\ensuremath{\mu}}\text{g}$ and 840 nrad/s for the acceleration and the rotation rate, respectively, using a short interrogation time of 0.87 ms (interference area A=0.097mm2A=0.097\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{mm}}^{2}A=0.097mm2). This work provides a building block for an atomic interferometer-based inertial measurement unit for use in field applications that require a high data rate and high stability.
We present an interferometric inertial sensor that utilizes two counter-propagating atomic beams with transverse two-dimensional cooling. By employing three parallel and spatially aligned Raman laser beams for Doppler-sensitive Raman transitions, we successfully generate inertia-sensitive Mach-Zehnder interference fringes with an interrogation length of 2L = 54 cm. The sensor’s capability to measure rotation and acceleration simultaneously in dynamic environments is validated through comparative analysis with classical sensors under force oscillation in different directions. Additionally, we conduct experiments on a turntable to calibrate the gyroscope’s scaling factor and address nonlinearity. The angular random walk (ARW) and velocity random walk (VRW) of the sensor are 3×10−4 °/√h and 107 μg/√Hz, respectively, with the long-term stability reaching 9 × 10−4 °/h for rotation and 10 μg for acceleration at an integration time of 1000 s.
We report on the realization of a compact atomic Mach–Zehnder-type Sagnac interferometer of 13.7 cm length, which covers an area of 19 mm 2 previously reported only for large thermal beam interferometers. According to Sagnac's formula, which holds for both light and atoms, the sensitivity for rotation rates increases linearly with the area enclosed by the interferometer. The use of cold atoms instead of thermal atoms enables miniaturization of Sagnac interferometers without sacrificing large areas. In comparison with thermal beams, slow atoms offer better matching of the initial beam velocity and the velocity with which the matter waves separate. In our case, the area is spanned by a cold atomic beam of 2.79 m s −1 , which is split, deflected and combined by driving a Raman transition between the two hyperfine ground states of 87 Rb in three spatially separated light zones. The use of cold atoms requires a precise angular alignment and high wave front quality of the three independent light zones over the cloud envelope. We present a procedure for mutually aligning the beam splitters at the microradian level by making use of the atom interferometer itself in different configurations. With this method, we currently achieve a sensitivity of .
Abstract Dual atom interferometer configurations have been extensively applied in gyroscopes and gradiometers to suppress common mode noise and extract inertial signals with high precision. However, the intrinsic phase coupling between the two interferometers poses a significant challenge for simultaneous fringe locking. Here, we demonstrate a dual atom interferometric gyroscope-accelerometer, where the simultaneous fringe locking is realized by employing independent direct digital synthesizer (DDSs) signals to control the laser phase shifts of each interferometer. This dual-fringe-locking approach enables both interferometer fringes in independent phase control and simultaneous feedback stabilization while preserving the common mode noise rejection inherent to the dual configuration. It facilitates the rotation and acceleration accurately and simultaneously measured; besides, compared with the traditional full-fringe recording, the data acquisition rate and the sensitivity of rotation and acceleration are enhanced. Thus, this solution is promising for high precision quantum inertial sensing applications.