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Continuous cold atom inertial sensor with 1 nrad.s^-1 rotation stability (Conference Presentation)

Rémi Geiger, Indranil Dutta, Denis Savoie, Bess Fang, Carlos L. Garrido Alzar, Bertrand Venon, Arnaud Landragin

Published Aug 3, 2016• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We report the first operation of a cold atom inertial sensor without dead time. Dead times in conventional cold atom interferometers originate from the preparation of a cold atom source prior to its injection in the interferometer and where information on inertial signals is lost. We use a sequence where we simultaneously prepare a cold atom source and operate a light pulse atom interferometer to circumvent the dead time limitation. Therefore the sensor continuously captures all the dynamics with respect to an inertial frame. We show that the continuous operation does not degrade the sensitivity and stability of the atom interferometer, by demonstrating a rotation sensitivity level of less than 1 nrad/s after 10 000 s of integration time. Such a sensitivity level improves previous results by more than an order of magnitude and opens applications of cold atom gyroscopes in inertial navigation and geophysics.

DOI
10.1117/12.2228533

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We report the first operation of a cold atom inertial sensor without dead time. Dead times in conventional cold atom interferometers originate from the preparation of a cold atom source prior to its injection in the interferometer and where information on inertial signals is lost. We use a sequence where we simultaneously prepare a cold atom source and operate a light pulse atom interferometer to circumvent the dead time limitation. Therefore the sensor continuously captures all the dynamics with respect to an inertial frame. We show that the continuous operation does not degrade the sensitivity and stability of the atom interferometer, by demonstrating a rotation sensitivity level of less than 1 nrad/s after 10 000 s of integration time. Such a sensitivity level improves previous results by more than an order of magnitude and opens applications of cold atom gyroscopes in inertial navigation and geophysics.
We report the operation of a cold-atom inertial sensor in a joint interrogation scheme, where we simultaneously prepare a cold-atom source and operate an atom interferometer in order to eliminate dead times [1]. This is illustrated in Fig. 1. Dead times and noise aliasing are consequences of the sequential operation which is intrinsic to cold-atom interferometers. Both phenomena have deleterious effects on the performance of these sensors. We show that our continuous operation improves the short-term sensitivity of atom interferometers, by demonstrating a record rotation sensitivity of 100 nrad.s-1/√Hz in a cold-atom gyroscope of 11 cm2Sagnac area. We also demonstrate a rotation stability of 1 nrad.s-1after 104s of integration, improving previous results by an order of magnitude [2-4]. We expect that the continuous operation will allow cold-atom inertial sensors with long interrogation time to reach their full sensitivity, determined by the quantum noise limit.
We report the operation of a cold-atom inertial sensor in a joint interrogation scheme, where we simultaneously prepare a cold-atom source and operate an atom interferometer in order to eliminate dead times. Noise aliasing and dead times are consequences of the sequential operation which is intrinsic to cold-atom atom interferometers. Both phenomena have deleterious effects on the performance of these sensors. We show that our continuous operation improves the short-term sensitivity of atom interferometers, by demonstrating a record rotation sensitivity of 100 nrad.s-1/√(Hz) in a cold-atom gyroscope of 11 cm2Sagnac area. We also demonstrate a rotation stability of 1 nrad.s-1after 104s of integration, improving previous results by an order of magnitude. We expect that the continuous operation will allow cold-atom inertial sensors with long interrogation time to reach their full sensitivity, determined by the quantum noise limit.
We report the operation of a cold-atom inertial sensor which continuously captures the rotation signal. Using a joint interrogation scheme, where we simultaneously prepare a cold-atom source and operate an atom interferometer (AI), enables us to eliminate the dead times. We show that such continuous operation improves the short-term sensitivity of AIs, and demonstrate a rotation sensitivity of 100 nrad/sec/sqrt[Hz] in a cold-atom gyroscope of 11 cm^{2} Sagnac area. We also demonstrate a rotation stability of 1 nrad/sec at 10^{4} sec of integration time, which represents the state of the art for atomic gyroscopes. The continuous operation of cold-atom inertial sensors will lead to large area AIs at their full sensitivity potential, determined by the quantum noise limit.
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.
Inertial sensors based on cold atom interferometry exhibit many interesting features for applications related to inertial navigation, particularly in terms of sensitivity and long-term stability. However, at present the typical atom interferometer is still very much an experiment—consisting of a bulky, static apparatus with a limited dynamic range and high sensitivity to environmental effects. To be compliant with mobile applications further development is needed. In this work, we present a compact and mobile experiment, which we recently used to achieve the first inertial measurements with an atomic accelerometer onboard an aircraft. By integrating classical inertial sensors into our apparatus, we are able to operate the atomic sensor well beyond its standard operating range, corresponding to half of an interference fringe. We report atom-based acceleration measurements along both the horizontal and vertical axes of the aircraft with one-shot sensitivities of 2.3 × 10−4 g over a range of ∼ 0.1 g. The same technology can be used to develop cold-atom gyroscopes, which could surpass the best optical gyroscopes in terms of long-term sensitivity. Our apparatus was also designed to study multi-axis atom interferometry with the goal of realizing a full inertial measurement unit comprised of the three axes of acceleration and rotation. Finally, we present a compact and tunable laser system, which constitutes an essential part of any cold-atom-based sensor. The architecture of the laser is based on phase modulating a single fiber-optic laser diode, and can be tuned over a range of 1 GHz in less than 200 μs.
The recent development of the atom interferometer and its demonstration as an inertial sensor of acceleration and rotation rate augur a new generation of inertial navigation systems that would rival today's satellite navigation accuracy at the few-meter level. This paper reviews the principles of inertial measurement using the atom interferometer from a rudimentary viewpoint to illustrate the fundamentals and to highlight some of the potential shortcomings with a particular type, the cold-atom interferometer. One of these shortcomings is the fact that this interferometer requires a finite period of time during which the atoms are prepared (cooled) before they enter the interferometer and respond to its dynamics relative to an inertial frame. This lapse in the measurement duty cycle could be supplemented with very precise conventional inertial measurement units (IMUs), or eliminated with multiple, interleaved atom interferometers. Error analyses show that cold-atom interferometric IMUs that capture 50 percent of the dynamics must be coupled with conventional IMUs that are 50 times more accurate than typical navigation-grade units to sustain a horizontal position error of under 5 m (root mean square) after 1 h.