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IEEE International Conference on Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems

Micro-fabricated alkali vapor cells for atomic spin gyroscope study

Yao Chen, Mingzhi Yu, Yintao Ma, Guoxi Luo, Zhuangde Jiang, Yu Bai, Libo Zhao

Published Apr 25, 2021• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The combination of MEMS technology with atomic spin devices could fabricate chip scale atomic sensors. In most of the atomic devices based on alkali metals, the key component is an alkali vapor cell. Here we describe an alkali vapor cell fabrication technic for atomic spin gyroscope study. In the alkali vapor cell, alkali metal is filled in an oxygen and water free glovebox and noble gas isotopes such as129Xe and131Xe are also filled. Compared to an atomic magnetometer, in an atomic spin gyroscope, the isotope enriched noble gases are typically very expensive. We need to do recycling of these expensive gases after filling in the anode bonding chamber or else the gases will be wasted. Due to the large volume of the anode bonding chamber utilized in the fabrication process, a recycling platform is built based on liquid nitrogen. The relaxation time is a very important parameter of an alkali vapor cell. We developed a platform with magnetic field shielding system, non-magnetic field heating and single beam atomic spin detection subsystem. The spin relaxation time of the noble gases is tested in this study.

DOI
10.1109/nems51815.2021.9451404

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The combination of MEMS technology with atomic spin devices could fabricate chip scale atomic sensors. In most of the atomic devices based on alkali metals, the key component is an alkali vapor cell. Here we describe an alkali vapor cell fabrication technic for atomic spin gyroscope study. In the alkali vapor cell, alkali metal is filled in an oxygen and water free glovebox and noble gas isotopes such as129Xe and131Xe are also filled. Compared to an atomic magnetometer, in an atomic spin gyroscope, the isotope enriched noble gases are typically very expensive. We need to do recycling of these expensive gases after filling in the anode bonding chamber or else the gases will be wasted. Due to the large volume of the anode bonding chamber utilized in the fabrication process, a recycling platform is built based on liquid nitrogen. The relaxation time is a very important parameter of an alkali vapor cell. We developed a platform with magnetic field shielding system, non-magnetic field heating and single beam atomic spin detection subsystem. The spin relaxation time of the noble gases is tested in this study.
We report on the fabrication and characterization of MEMS atomic vapor cells suitable for applications in miniaturized quantum sensors such as atomic gyroscopes. Our MEMS cells are filled with natural abundance Rb alkali atoms and enriched noble Xe atoms and are operated in the regime of spin exchange optical pumping. The transverse relaxation time T2* of the nuclear spin in 129Xe atoms directly defines the angular random walk parameter of an atomic gyroscope. Using a field switch technique, we measure the dephasing time T2* of the 129Xe isotope as a function of temperature. Our results showing a decrease of T2* from about 1 to 0.4 seconds with an increasing temperature in the range from 80 to 150 °C are in good agreement with a simple theoretical model taking into account the most important decoherence mechanisms. We show that the observed decoherence behavior can be mostly explained trough collisions of the Xe atoms with the walls. Further characterization steps in order to gain more insight in the decoherence physics involved in our MEMS cells are discussed.
Compared with superconducting quantum interference devices, chip-scale atomic magnetometers using the wafer-level micro alkali vapor cells can be used more conveniently in the applications of geophysical mapping, health care and remote monitoring. Drastic wall collisions and decreased polarization lifetime are the main barriers for the performance of the chip-scale atomic magnetometers. In this study, OTS organic films coated on the inner surface of the micro vapor cells were used to suppress wall collisions and improve polarization lifetime of the alkali atoms in the micro cells. First of all, the fabrication process of wafer-level micro OTS coated vapor cells is introduced, the process is based on anodic bonding technology. Then the prepared wafer-level micro OTS coated vapor cells have been characterized by the water-contact angle test and measured in the micro-machined spin-exchange relaxation free(SERF) atomic magnetometers. Results show that the OTS coating is effective after anodic bonding from the water contact angle test. Results also indicate that the spin exchange relaxation free atomic magnetometer using the micro OTS-coated vapor cell can operate successfully.
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.
MEMS vapor cells with buffer gas are the core components of chip scale atomic sensors due to the spin precession. We microfabricated rubidium vapor cells filled with neon based on MEMS technology and characterized the performance of MEMS vapor cells by measuring the longitudinal relaxation time. The dependence of spin relaxation time on buffer gas pressure and cell temperature was theoretically and experimentally investigated and the consistency was achieved. This provides a potential simpler approach to evaluate the performance of chip scale atomic sensors, such as atomic magnetometers, based on MEMS vapor cells.
Abstract The combination of micro-machined technology with atomic spin gyroscope (ASG) devices can be used to fabricate a chip-scale atomic spin gyroscope (CASG). The core of the gyroscope is a micromachined vapour cell, which contains alkali metal and isotope-enriched noble gases, such as 129 Xe and 131 Xe . The quadrupolar frequency shift of 131 Xe is a key parameter that can affect the drift of the ASG and is related to the material of the cell in which they are contained. In micromachining technology, the utilised material is silicon. In this study, we investigated the electric quadrupolar frequency shift of 131 Xe atoms with the silicon wall of a micro-machined vapour cell. A cylindrical micromachined vapour cell was utilised in the experiment, and a large part of the inner cell surface comprised silicon material. We studied the temperature dependence of the 129 Xe spin relaxation and 131 Xe frequency shifts to evaluate the interaction of the nuclear spin with the container wall and alkali metal atoms. The results show that the average twisted angle of the 131 Xe nuclear spins as they collided with the silicon wall was measured as 29 × 10 − 6 rad. The desorption energy required for the 131 Xe nuclear spin to escape from the silicon surface was E s i = 0.009 eV . This study could help improve the bias stability of the CASG, which is a key parameter for the gyroscope, and may help to develop a method to study the surface properties of various materials.