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arXiv:2411.05319 · New Journal of Physics

Dual axis atomic magnetometer and gyroscope enabled by nuclear spin perturbation

Morgan P. Hedges, Ankit Papneja, Karun Paul, B. C. Buchler

Published Mar 28, 2025• 7 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract Alkali-noble-gas comagnetometers have become an essential tool for tests of fundamental physics and offer a compact platform for precision gyroscopy. They are, however, limited by technical noise at low frequencies, commonly due to their limited suppression of magnetic noise. Here we investigate a new method for co-magnetometry between a single noble gas and alkali species. While similar to well-known devices using self-compensation, our scheme introduces magnetic pulses that controllably perturb the noble gas and pulsed optical pumping to polarise the alkali atoms. These applied pulses allow our scheme to measure, rather than just suppress, the effect of magnetic noise thereby offering reduced cross-talk. We show numerically that our scheme retrieves four signals (rotations and magnetic fields on two transverse axes) with similar sensitivity to a single axis device. We also present a proof-of-principle experiment based on a 87 Rb - 129 Xe cell. Our data shows a low magnetic-rotation cross-talk of 0.2 ± 0.1 μ Hz/pT, which is already on par with the most sensitive devices relying on self-compensation.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/adc6b3

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Abstract Alkali-noble-gas comagnetometers have become an essential tool for tests of fundamental physics and offer a compact platform for precision gyroscopy. They are, however, limited by technical noise at low frequencies, commonly due to their limited suppression of magnetic noise. Here we investigate a new method for co-magnetometry between a single noble gas and alkali species. While similar to well-known devices using self-compensation, our scheme introduces magnetic pulses that controllably perturb the noble gas and pulsed optical pumping to polarise the alkali atoms. These applied pulses allow our scheme to measure, rather than just suppress, the effect of magnetic noise thereby offering reduced cross-talk. We show numerically that our scheme retrieves four signals (rotations and magnetic fields on two transverse axes) with similar sensitivity to a single axis device. We also present a proof-of-principle experiment based on a 87 Rb - 129 Xe cell. Our data shows a low magnetic-rotation cross-talk of 0.2 ± 0.1 μ Hz/pT, which is already on par with the most sensitive devices relying on self-compensation.
We describe a dual-axis atomic spin gyroscope based on an alkali metal-noble gas comagnetometer. Alkali metal vapor is optically pumped, and then the noble gas is hyperpolarized along the z axis. When sensing a transverse rotation, the polarized noble gas will be induced to precess and produce an effective magnetic field in the x – y plane for alkali metals to precess under. Operating in the spin-exchange relaxation-free regime, alkali atoms are modulated by the z axis magnetic field and serve as an integrated in-situ dual-axis magnetometer to detect the gyroscopic precession in the x and y axes simultaneously, using a single probe beam. By using the parametric modulation technique, the low frequency drift is effectively suppressed and a bias instability of less than 0.05 deg/h has been achieved in our dual-axis atomic spin gyroscope.
Precision measurements of anomalous spin-dependent interactions are often hindered by magnetic noise and other magnetic systematic effects. Atomic comagnetometers use the distinct spin precession of two species and have emerged as important tools for effectively mitigating the magnetic noise. Nevertheless, the operation of existing comagnetometers is limited to very low-frequency noise commonly below 1 Hz. Here, we report a new type of atomic comagnetometer based on a magnetic noise self-compensation mechanism originating from the destructive interference between alkali-metal and noble-gas spins. Our comagnetometer employing K-^{3}He system remarkably suppresses magnetic noise exceeding 2 orders of magnitude at higher frequencies up to 160 Hz. Moreover, we discover that the capability of our comagnetometer to suppress magnetic noise is spatially dependent on the orientation of the noise and can be conveniently controlled by adjusting the applied bias magnetic field. Our findings open up new possibilities for precision measurements, including enhancing the search sensitivity of spin-dark matter particles interactions into unexplored parameter space.
We describe a dual-axis atomic spin comagnetometer for rotation sensing using a single laser beam. A circularly polarized laser is used to pump the co-located atomic ensembles of alkali metal and noble gas and probe their gyroscopic precession at the same time, which is different from the traditional two-beam orthogonal pump-probe configuration. Combined with magnetic field modulations perpendicular to the laser propagating direction, the comagnetometer could measure dual-axis rotation rates simultaneously. This system is demonstrated theoretically and experimentally. A rotation sensitivity of 5.1 × 10–7 rad s−1 Hz−1∕2 and a bias instability of 0.016 °/h have been achieved. The theory and method presented here shed light on the way to miniaturize the comagnetometer with high precision for practical applications.
Self-compensated comagnetometers, employing overlapping samples of spin-polarized alkali and noble gases (for example K-3He{}^{3}\mathrm{He}3He) are promising sensors for exotic beyond-the-standard-model fields and high-precision metrology such as rotation sensing. When the comagnetometer operates in the so-called self-compensated regime, the effective field, originating from contact interactions between the alkali valence electrons and the noble-gas nuclei, is compensated with an applied magnetic field. When the comagnetometer begins operation in a given magnetic field, spin-exchange optical pumping establishes an equilibrium between the alkali electron-spin polarization and the nuclear-spin polarization. Subsequently, when the magnetic field is tuned to the compensation point, the spin polarization is brought out of the equilibrium conditions. This causes a practical issue for long measurement times. We report on a method for closed-loop control of the compensation field. This method allows optimization of the operating parameters, especially magnetic field gradients, in spite of the inherently slow (hours to days) dynamics of the system. With the optimization, higher stable nuclear polarization, longer relaxation times, and stronger electron-nuclear coupling are achieved which is useful for nuclear-spin-based quantum memory, spin amplifiers, and gyroscopes. The optimized sensor demonstrates a sensitivity comparable to the best previous comagnetometer but with four times lower noble-gas density. This paves the way for applications in both fundamental and applied science.
We describe a nuclear spin gyroscope based on an alkali-metal--noble-gas comagnetometer. Optically pumped alkali-metal vapor is used to polarize the noble-gas atoms and detect their gyroscopic precession. Spin precession due to magnetic fields as well as their gradients and transients can be cancelled in this arrangement. The sensitivity is enhanced by using a high-density alkali-metal vapor in a spin-exchange relaxation free regime. With a $\mathrm{K}\mathrm{\text{\ensuremath{-}}}^{3}\mathrm{He}$ comagnetometer we demonstrate rotation sensitivity of $5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}7}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{rad}\text{ }{\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\text{ }{\mathrm{Hz}}^{\ensuremath{-}1/2}$, equivalent to a magnetic field sensitivity of 2.5  fT/Hz1/22.5\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{fT}/{\mathrm{Hz}}^{1/2}2.5  fT/Hz1/2. The rotation signal can be increased by a factor of 10 using 21Ne^{21}\mathrm{Ne}21Ne with a smaller magnetic moment. The comagnetometer is also a promising tool in searches for anomalous spin couplings beyond the standard model.
A dual-axis atomic comagnetometer can sense the angular rotation of two measurement axes simultaneously and independently. However, there is a cross-talk coupling effect between the two axes because of the residual magnetic field and the light shift arising from the pumping laser. Here, we propose a scheme to eliminate the rotation coupling of dual-axis K-Rb-N21e atomic comagnetometers. The residual magnetic field can be effectively removed by controlling the comagnetometer at the magnetic compensation point and the magnetic shielding layer. The light shift could be eliminated by using the K atom light shift to counteract the Rb atom light shift, in which the light shift of K atoms was optimized to the decoupling point by finely adjusting the pumping laser wavelength of the K D1 line. The feasibility and efficiency of this decoupling scheme have been experimentally verified. The output response of the coupling axis is reduced by two orders of magnitude compared to the sensitive axis. This scheme can also be applied to any atomic comagnetometer with hybrid optical pumping that experiences cross-talk coupling.