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Physical Review A

Extension of the rotation-rate measurement range with no sensitivity loss in a cold-atom gyroscope

Yuan Zhao, Xuguang Yue, Fusheng Chen, Chen Yang Huang

Published Jul 12, 2021• 19 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A cold-atom gyroscope as an intrinsic high-precision sensor has, however, one inevitable limitation for its dynamic application lying in the vanishing fringe contrast beyond the rotation-rate limit. Here, we realize the measurement beyond the rotation-rate limit via the tip-tilt mirror compensation technique in a three-pulse cold-atom gyroscope. The contrasts of both fringes at an external rotation rate of ${15}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$/s or below are fully recovered to about 35%, nearly the same as that in the static condition. We elucidate theoretically that intact rotation information can still be extracted from the phase output even though the mirror completely counteracts its rotation. Before reaching 50% contrast loss, detailed numerical verification shows a two-orders-of-magnitude extension in the dynamic range for the compensated case compared with that without compensation. Further analysis shows that no reduction of sensitivity up to ${60}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$/s is found for our scheme, whereas other schemes have a trade-off between sensitivity and dynamic range. Whereas other schemes have a trade-off between sensitivity and dynamic range, the simulation shows that no reduction to the sensitivity is found for the measurement beyond the rotation-rate limit in our scheme for up to ${60}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$/s. These features are especially of major relevance in applications such as inertial sensing and navigation.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.104.013312

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A cold-atom gyroscope as an intrinsic high-precision sensor has, however, one inevitable limitation for its dynamic application lying in the vanishing fringe contrast beyond the rotation-rate limit. Here, we realize the measurement beyond the rotation-rate limit via the tip-tilt mirror compensation technique in a three-pulse cold-atom gyroscope. The contrasts of both fringes at an external rotation rate of 15\ensuremath∘{15}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}15\ensuremath∘/s or below are fully recovered to about 35%, nearly the same as that in the static condition. We elucidate theoretically that intact rotation information can still be extracted from the phase output even though the mirror completely counteracts its rotation. Before reaching 50% contrast loss, detailed numerical verification shows a two-orders-of-magnitude extension in the dynamic range for the compensated case compared with that without compensation. Further analysis shows that no reduction of sensitivity up to 60\ensuremath∘{60}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}60\ensuremath∘/s is found for our scheme, whereas other schemes have a trade-off between sensitivity and dynamic range. Whereas other schemes have a trade-off between sensitivity and dynamic range, the simulation shows that no reduction to the sensitivity is found for the measurement beyond the rotation-rate limit in our scheme for up to 60\ensuremath∘{60}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}60\ensuremath∘/s. These features are especially of major relevance in applications such as inertial sensing and navigation.
The exquisite precision of atom interferometers has sparked the interest of a large community for uses ranging from fundamental physics to geodesy and inertial navigation. However, their implementation for onboard applications is still limited, not least because rotation and acceleration are intertwined in a single phase shift, which makes the extraction of a useful signal more challenging. Moreover, the spatial separation of the wave packets due to rotations leads to a loss of signal. We present an atom interferometer operating over a large range of random angles, rotation rates and accelerations. A model of the expected phase shift allows us to untangle the rotation and acceleration signals. We also implement a real-time compensation system using fiber-optic gyroscopes and a rotating reference mirror to maintain the full contrast of the interferometer. We demonstrate a single-shot sensitivity to acceleration of 24 μg for rotation rates reaching 14° s−1. Cold atoms inertial sensors offer great precision and sensitivity, yet their use in mobile applications has been hindered by the effects of rotations on their measurements. Here, authors demonstrate an atom interferometer operating over a wide range of orientations and rotation rates, thanks to hybridisation with accelerometers and gyroscopes.
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Atom-interferometer-based gyroscopes are expected to have a wide range of applications due to their high sensitivity; however, their dynamic range is limited by dephasing from the velocity-dependent Sagnac phase shift and the longitudinal velocity distribution of the atoms, restricting measurements of large angular velocities. In this study, we present a method for restoring the contrast deterioration in angular velocity measurements with interferometer gyroscopes using atomic beams. We show that by introducing a pseudorotation effect with appropriate two-photon detunings for Raman light in the interferometer, it is possible to effectively cancel the Sagnac phase shift for all atoms in the velocity distribution of the beam. Consequently, the contrast is unaffected by the rotation. Furthermore, we apply this method to an interferometer gyroscope with counterpropagating atomic beams sharing the same Raman light. It is found that the angular velocity of the system can be estimated through the detuning point where the phase difference between the two interferometers is zero. This approach ensures that the scale factor of the atom interferometer gyroscope is independent of the change in the longitudinal velocity distribution of the atomic beam. We demonstrate our technique using an interferometer gyroscope with thermal atomic beams of rubidium-87, achieving a measurement of angular velocity of $1.0{\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}/\mathrm{s}$ even with an acceleration of 0.68m/s20.68\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\mathrm{m}/{\mathrm{s}}^{2}0.68m/s2 on a three-axis rotation table. This simple and robust dispersion-compensation method with Raman-light detuning will benefit dynamic angular velocity measurements in field applications such as the inertial navigation of vehicles.
Cold-atom inertial sensors target several applications in navigation, geoscience and tests of fundamental physics. Reaching high sampling rates and high inertial sensitivities, obtained with long interrogation times, represents a challenge for these applications. We report on the interleaved operation of a cold-atom gyroscope, where 3 atomic clouds are interrogated simultaneously in an atom interferometer featuring a 3.75 Hz sampling rate and an interrogation time of 801 ms. Interleaving improves the inertial sensitivity by efficiently averaging vibration noise, and allows us to perform dynamic rotation measurements in a so-far unexplored range. We demonstrate a stability of 3×10−103\times 10^{-10}3×10−10 rad.s−1^{-1}−1, which competes with the best stability levels obtained with fiber-optics gyroscopes. Our work validates interleaving as a key concept for future atom-interferometry sensors probing time-varying signals, as in on-board navigation and gravity-gradiometry, searches for dark matter, or gravitational wave detection.
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.
High-precision gyroscopes in space are essential for fundamental physics research and navigation. Due to its potential high precision, the cold atom gyroscope is expected to be the next generation of gyroscopes in space. Here, we report the first realization of a cold atom gyroscope, which was demonstrated by the atom interferometer installed in the China Space Station (CSS) as a payload. By compensating for CSS's high dynamic rotation rate using a built-in piezoelectric mirror, spatial interference fringes in the interferometer are successfully obtained. Then, the optimized ratio of the Raman laser's angles is derived, the coefficients of the piezoelectric mirror are self-calibrated in orbit, and various systemic effects are corrected. We achieve a rotation measurement resolution of 50*10^-6 rad/s for a single shot and 17*10^-6 rad/s for an average number of 32. The measured rotation is (-1142+/-29)*10^-6 rad/s and is compatible with that recorded by the classical gyroscope of the CSS. This study paves the way for developing high-precision cold atom gyroscopes in space.