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Youth Academic Annual Conference of Chinese Association of Automation (YAC)

Automatic magnetic compensation system for SERF atomic comagnetometer

Zhuo Wang, Luxv Zhai, Jiong Huang

Published Oct 16, 2020• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

To realize the SERF (spin exchange relaxation free) state of the atomic comagnetometer for inertial measurement, this paper proposes an efficient automatic magnetic compensation system based on the analysis of the dynamic model of the SERF atomic comagnetometer, such that the essential and necessary condition of low environmental magnetic field is satisfied. This system first makes a fast but rough compensation to reduce the impact of environmental magnetic field to a very low level, then accurately but slowly compensates the residual magnetic field. The rough compensation is made under low power detection light to achieve high efficiency, while the accurate one is made under high power detection light to achieve high accuracy, which are both automatically performed. This is definitely an advantage over the most existing magnetic compensation systems for the SERF atomic comagnetometer, which rely only on manual adjustments with low accuracy and poor repeatability. The simulation illustrates the good efficiency, accuracy and repeatability of the proposed automatic magnetic compensation system.

DOI
10.1109/yac51587.2020.9337652

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To realize the SERF (spin exchange relaxation free) state of the atomic comagnetometer for inertial measurement, this paper proposes an efficient automatic magnetic compensation system based on the analysis of the dynamic model of the SERF atomic comagnetometer, such that the essential and necessary condition of low environmental magnetic field is satisfied. This system first makes a fast but rough compensation to reduce the impact of environmental magnetic field to a very low level, then accurately but slowly compensates the residual magnetic field. The rough compensation is made under low power detection light to achieve high efficiency, while the accurate one is made under high power detection light to achieve high accuracy, which are both automatically performed. This is definitely an advantage over the most existing magnetic compensation systems for the SERF atomic comagnetometer, which rely only on manual adjustments with low accuracy and poor repeatability. The simulation illustrates the good efficiency, accuracy and repeatability of the proposed automatic magnetic compensation system.
The spin-exchange-relaxation-free(SERF)atomic magnetometer with ultrahigh sensitive becomes the most effective measurement to analyze the component of the planet in space exploration.In order to improve the sensitivity of the SERF atomic magnetometer,we must avoid the influence on the SERF regime disturbed by environment magnetic field.In this paper we design an active compensation system based on in-situ magnetic measurement to compensate the magnetic disturbance.Firstly,we get the three-axis magnetic field information according to the measurement of pop-laser,then control the current of coil to generate a magnetic field which is opposite and equal to the disturbance,to keep the SERF regime.Finally,we validat the method with the atomic magnetometer experimental setup.The result shows that compared with the manual compensation method,the system can track the magnetic compensation point in real time,reduce the signal noise and compensate the magnetic disturbance successfully,validating the efficiency of the active compensation system and establishing the technique foundation of the production.
The spin-exchange-relaxation-free (SERF) atomic magnetometer is an ultra-high sensitivity magnetometer, but it must be operated in a magnetic field with strength less than about 10 nT. Magnetic field compensation is an effective way to shield the magnetic field, and this paper demonstrates an in situ triaxial magnetic field compensation system for operating the SERF atomic magnetometer. The proposed hardware is based on optical pumping, which uses some part of the SERF atomic magnetometer itself, and the compensation method is implemented by analyzing the dynamics of the atomic spin. The experimental setup for this compensation system is described, and with this configuration, a residual magnetic field of strength less than 2 nT (±0.38 nT in the x axis, ±0.43 nT in the y axis, and ±1.62 nT in the z axis) has been achieved after compensation. The SERF atomic magnetometer was then used to verify that the residual triaxial magnetic fields were coincident with what were achieved by the compensation system.
The atomic comagnetometers (ACMs) based on the spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) regime exhibit extremely high sensitivity in angular velocity measurements, positioning them as leading candidates for next-generation precision inertial sensing. However, magnetic noise remains a significant factor that contributes significantly to long-term bias drift. Here, a comprehensive model in full-frequency band of the angular velocity measurement error induced by magnetic noise in ACMs is established. Based on the proposed model, what we believe to be a new method is proposed to reduce magnetic noise error by suppressing the magnetic field response in the mid-frequency range. After optimizing the temperature of the vapor cell to minimize the magnetic field response in the mid-frequency range, the angular velocity measurement error caused by magnetic noise was reduced by 20.4%, and the bias drift was improved by 34.8%. The theories and methods proposed in this study innovatively highlight the critical role of mid-frequency magnetic field responses in suppressing magnetic noise errors, and provide important guidance for improving bias drift in SERF ACMs.
In recent years, developments in quantum sensing, laser, and atomic sensor technologies have also enabled advancement in the field of quantum navigation. Atomic-based gyroscopes have emerged as one of the most critical atomic sensors in this respect. In this review, a brief technology statement of spin exchange relaxation free (SERF) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) type atomic comagnetometer gyroscope (CG) is presented. Related studies in the literature have been gathered, and the fundamental compositions of CGs with technical basics are presented. A comparison of SERF and NMR CGs is provided. A basic simulation of SERF CG was carried out because of its high theoretic bias stability limit. Besides, some highly critical challenges for CGs were examined and reported with compensation methods. The objective of this review is to offer a guide for researchers to develop high-precision atomic gyroscopes and to encourage further research.
The single-beam comagnetometer working in the spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) state is being developed into a miniaturized atomic sensor with extremely high precision in rotation measurement. In this paper, we propose a reflective configuration for the single-beam SERF comagnetometer. The laser light simultaneously used for optical pumping and signal extraction is designed to pass through the atomic ensemble twice. In the optical system, we propose a structure composed of a polarizing beam splitter and a quarter-wave plate. With this, the reflected light beam can be separated entirely from the forward propagating one and realize a complete light collection with a photodiode, making the least light power loss. In our reflective scheme, the length of interaction between light and atoms is extended, and because the power of the DC light component is attenuated, the photodiode can work in a more sensitive range and has a better photoelectric conversion coefficient. Compared with the single-pass scheme, our reflective configuration has a stronger output signal and performs better signal-to-noise ratio and rotation sensitivity. Our work has an important impact on developing miniaturized atomic sensors for rotation measurement in the future.
Atomic spin sensors are essential for beyond-the-standard-model exploration, biomagnetic measurement, and quantum navigation. While the traditional DC mode spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) comagnetometer achieves ultrahigh sensitivity, further improvements require suppressing technical noise and surpassing standard quantum limit. In this work, we develop a K-Rb-21^{21}21Ne SERF atomic comagnetometer that dynamically polarizes the electron and nuclear spins, shielding signals from direct interference by pump light. We establish a three-phase evolutionary model for hybrid spin ensemble dynamics, yielding a complete analytical solution, and analyze the responses to various spin perturbations. Additionally, we achieve an averaged 38.5 %\%% suppression of the polarization noise and identify the key factors that limit sensitivity improvements. The dynamically polarized comagnetometer exhibits effective suppression of technical noise and holds the potential to overcome quantum noise limit, while offering promising applications in exploring new physics and precise magnetic field measurements.