The K-Rb-21Ne co-magnetometer exhibits poorer dynamic performance due to the larger equivalent magnetic field generated by alkali metal atoms. In this study, the impact of the atomic number density of alkali metal atoms and noble gas atoms in the cell on the dynamic performance of the atomic ensemble is investigated quantitatively. Relationships between the slow-decay term in the transient response attenuation of the Spin-Exchange Relaxation-Free (SERF) co-magnetometer to interference magnetic fields and the number densities of noble gas atoms as well as alkali metal atoms are established. Based on the established model, the relationship between the number density of 21Ne atoms and dynamic performance is investigated using cells with five different noble gas pressures. Then, we investigate the impact of the number density of alkali metal atoms using a cell with a pressure of 2.1 atm at different temperatures. The results indicate that, as the number density of alkali metal atoms or noble gas atoms in the cell increases, the dynamic performance of the system improves, which provides a theoretical basis for the design of cell parameters for SERF co-magnetometers.
Inside a spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) co-magnetometer with a high-pressure buffer gas atomic cell, the magnetic field gradient causes the decoherence of atomic spins to produce magnetic-field gradient relaxation. This paper presents a new method for the accurate measurement of magnetic field gradient relaxation of alkali metal atoms and inert atoms of strongly coupled spin systems under triaxial magnetic field gradients in the K-Rb-21Ne co-magnetometer. The magnetic field gradient relaxation of alkali metal atoms is measured using a step magnetic field modulation method, and the magnetic field gradient relaxation of inert atoms is measured using a combined free induction decay and spin growth method. The method does not require the use of large background magnetic fields and RF fields to maintain the atoms in the SERF state, does not require additional optics, and is not affected by the pumping or detecting of optical power. A kinetic model that considers a large electron-equivalent magnetic field was designed and a gradient relaxation model was developed. The quadratic coefficients of the experimentally measured gradient relaxation curves fit the theoretical model well over the range of the applied magnetic field gradients, confirming the validity of the proposed method.
Spin manipulation and detection of alkali-metal and noble-gas ensembles in spin-exchange-relaxation-free (SERF) comagnetometers are widely used in fundamental physical research, and have potential for inertial navigation. The dynamic behavior of spin ensembles is a vital characteristic that determines the applicability of comagnetometers, which significantly differs from various combinations of alkali-metal and noble-gas species. We comprehensively study the critical dynamics of strongly interacting ensembles in SERF comagnetometers with different species combinations. Different from the self-compensation point, a model of strong coupling point at which the dynamics is nonlinear because two ensembles influence each other strongly is established. We verify it by comparing the transient and steady-state dynamics of K-Rb-
21Ne, K-Rb-
3He, and K-
3He comagnetometers with various input signals. The K-Rb-
21Ne comagnetometer has a better potential for bandwidth and sensitivity in inertial measurement. Besides, we propose a critical point where the response rate of coupling spin ensembles is optimal among all polarization, and the critical dynamics is verified experimentally to be in agreement with theoretical simulations. The damping rate and precession frequency at the critical point can be more than 5 times larger than that at typical optimal spin polarization. Enhancement of spin-ensemble coupling strength improves the response rate of SERF comagnetometers and paves the way for efficient manipulation of noble-gas atoms via alkali-metal atoms in quantum information.
Abstract We propose a new model for magnetic field errors based on the rotation measurement of the K-Rb- 21 Ne co-magnetometer, considering the density ratio and spin collisions. The spin polarization characteristics of different alkali metal density ratios were analyzed by creating five cells with different density ratios, and the correctness of the magnetic field error model was verified experimentally. Moreover, the effects of five different alkali metal density ratios of cells on the sensitivity, long-term stability and magnetic field error suppression of the K-Rb- 21 Ne co-magnetometer were investigated experimentally. When the density ratio is 1:107, there can be the optimal magnetic field error suppression effect, sensitivity and long-term stability. According to the derived magnetic field error equation, the magnetic noise error of the K-Rb- 21 Ne co-magnetometer with an optimized density ratio is reduced by nearly 5 times from 260°/h/nT to 56.5°/h/nT, the sensitivity is improved from 2.9×10 −5 °/s/Hz 1 / 2 to 7.0×10 −6 °/s/Hz 1 / 2 at 1 Hz, and the long-term stability Allan variance over two hours is improved from 1.9×10 −2 °/h to 8.9×10 −3 °/h. This result provides a theoretical basis for designing the parameters of the K-Rb- 21 Ne co-magnetometer cell.
We have studied the polarization of the 85Rb and the fundamental sensitivity of two types of hybrid optical pumping spin exchange relaxation free (SERF) co-magnetometers based on 39K-85Rb-21Ne and 133Cs-85Rb-21Ne with taking the wall relaxation rate into account,which has a big effect on the polarization and fundamental sensitivity,but it is often neglected in the experiments,respectively.The polarization of the 85Rb varies with the thirteen systemic parameters: the number density of buffer gas 21Ne and quench gas N2,frequency rate of pump beam,cell temperature,the photon number flux,mole fraction of 85Rb,cell effective radius,pump beam spot radius,power density of pump beam,input rotation velocity in the x and y direction,external magnetic field in the y and z direction,respectively.The number density of the 21Ne,photon number flux,pump beam spot radius and frequency rate will affect the polarization of the 85Rb greatly by affecting the the pumping rate of pump beam,a magnetic field produced by 85Rb atom spins and experienced by the 21Ne spins.We obtain a general formula on the fundamental sensitivity of the hybrid optical pumping SERF co-magnetometers due to shot-noise,where the fundamental sensitivity varies with the twelve systemic parameters: the number density of buffer gas and quench gas,frequency rate of pump beam,photon number flux,mole fraction of 85Rb,cell effective radius,pump beam spot radius,power density of pump beam,external magnetic field,measurement volume,cell temperature and measurement time.The highest fundamental sensitivity
7.5878×10−11 rad/s/Hz1/2 of 133Cs-85Rb-21Ne co-magnetometer is higher than the ultimate theoretical sensitivity
2×10−10 rad/s/Hz1/2 of K-21Ne co-magnetometer.The fundamental sensitivity limit of the hybrid optical pumping SERF co-magnetometers is superior to
3.7334×10−12 rad/s/Hz1/2.
Alkali metal-noble gas comagnetometers operated in the regime of spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) have been widely used in fundamental physics tests and rotation sensing as gyroscope. Spin-exchange relaxation is an important systematic bias of the comagnetometer, which could limit sensitivity significantly. However, the suppression effect of the spin-exchange relaxation has not been examined quantitatively so far. Herein, we systematically investigate the relaxation of the alkali metal atoms and find that the spin-exchange relaxation is not completely eliminated under the normal operating condition of the K-Rb-21Ne comagnetometer. In addition to the optical pumping rate, the spin-exchange relaxation still plays a dominant role in the broadening of electron Zeeman resonances due to the large electron magnetic field. This is the first demonstration that the alkali metal atoms are operated in the near-SERF regime in the alkali metal-noble gas comagnetometer with a large election magnetic field, which will shed light on the way to reduce the relaxation of the alkali metal atoms and enhance the sensitivity of the comagnetometer.
The number density of alkali atoms in vaper cell is an important parameter for atomic magnetometer. The vapor cell is usually heated to a high temperature for the number density exceed to 1018m−3to achieve the spin-exchange-relaxation-free (SERF) process. The optical rotation of multichannel atomic magnetometers is affected by the number density distribution. We present an effective method for monitoring and analyzing the spatial distribution homogeneity of the atomic number density in the alkali metal cell within the SERF magnetometer. The numerical results from researching the model of electric heating films and ovens show that the temperature gradient increases with an increase in the cell temperature. This causes an nonuniform number density distribution based on the saturated vapor pressure curve. We present a laser absorption spectroscopy method by using the high-resolution beam profiling camera to record the power of the beam before and after the cell. An optimized optical system of the atomic magnetometer has been established by measuring the the number density variation in the spatial distribution in mm scale. The number density variation coefficient, which is introduced to evaluate the distribution homogeneity, increases from 0.0257 to 0.0333 when the temperature of the oven wall rises from 140°C to 190 °C, showing the same trend as the simulation results. The optical rotation distribution is calculated according to the magnetometer output signal formula. This study is of great interest for optimizing the oven structure and improving the stability of atomic spin polarization and sensitivity of the multichannel magnetometer.