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.
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.
With the rapid development of modern physics, atomic gyroscopes have been demonstrated in recent years. There are two types of atomic gyroscope. The Atomic Interferometer Gyroscope (AIG), which utilizes the atomic interferometer to sense rotation, is an ultra-high precision gyroscope; and the Atomic Spin Gyroscope (ASG), which utilizes atomic spin to sense rotation, features high precision, compact size and the possibility to make a chip-scale one. Recent developments in the atomic gyroscope field have created new ways to obtain high precision gyroscopes which were previously unavailable with mechanical or optical gyroscopes, but there are still lots of problems that need to be overcome to meet the requirements of inertial navigation systems. This paper reviews the basic principles of AIG and ASG, introduces the recent progress in this area, focusing on discussing their technical difficulties for inertial navigation applications, and suggests methods for developing high performance atomic gyroscopes in the near future.
This paper aims to review the technology, developments, and applications of spin exchange relaxation free (SERF) atomic magnetometers. The generalized comparisons between the SERF magnetometer and the other types of weak magnetic sensors are elaborated. Further, the fundamental composition and operational principle of the SERF atomic magnetometer are elucidated. The development history and recent technological developments with respect to several aspects, including the alkali metal vapor source, atom heating method, pump and probe lasers, and magnetic shielding system, are presented. The classification and respective advantages and disadvantages of these technologies are described in detail. Finally, the existing and potential applications, as well as the prospective future development trends are presented.
Atomic gyroscopes can be used to measure carrier's rotation information by atomic spin or Sagnac interference effect, which have the characteristics of high precision, small volume, and so on. In the first part, atomic gyroscopes are discussed with their principles, and recent research statues. In the second part, it is presented that the progress of nuclear magnetic resonance gyro (NMRG), spin-exchange relaxation free gyro (SERFG) and cold atomic interferometer gyro (CAIG) have been achieved in Beijing institute of control devices (BICD). For the NMRG, the key technologies are introduced, which include long relaxation time of small sized vapor cell manufacture, non-magnetic electronic heating system, static magnetic field stabling with double working materials, and the frequency of the laser stabling. The research achievements of NMRG in BICD are presented that, the Earth's Rotary Rate (ERR) has been sensed, the bias drift is better than 3°/h(1 σ). For the SERFG, the key technologies are introduced about high pressure vapor cell manufacture, and nuclear magnetic field compensation. The SERFG prototype in BICD is shown. For the CAIG, the key technologies are introduced about cold atoms maintaining in free space, chip for atoms manufacture, Raman pulse preparation, and cold atoms interference. The research achievements of CAIG in BICD are presented that the temperature of the cold atomic cluster achieved to 3 μ K, the number of the atoms in the cluster reaches 107. At last, the future applications and the development trends of atomic inertial systems are prospected with the remarkable performance of NMRG, SERFG, and CAIG.
There are two kinds of atomic vapor cell gyroscopes, one is nuclear-magnetic-resonance (NMR) gyroscope and the other is spin-exchange-relaxation-free (SERF) gyroscope. We demonstrate that there is a common model for these two kinds of gyroscope. The output signals of NMR and SERF gyroscopes are compared directly, which provides an important guidance for the scheme choosing and optimization of atomic gyroscope. Although this expose of the equivalence cannot solve the current problems of atomic gyroscopes, such as the narrow response bandwidth of SERF gyroscope and the drift due to the different Fermi-contact interaction coefficient in NMR gyroscope, it provides a simple understanding of atomic gyroscopes and may inspire new schemes combining advantages of both NMR and SERF gyroscopes.
Abstract Atomic spin comagnetometers based on the spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) effect offer significant potential for inertial sensing and support the development of long-endurance, high-precision navigation technologies. However, limited nuclear spin polarization constrains the long-term stability of these systems. Here, a flat-top optical pumping configuration is introduced for SERF comagnetometers, expanding the uniform-intensity region of the beam to approximately 62 % , which enhances atomic polarization by around 19 % and improves magnetic noise suppression by 32 % . Experimental results demonstrate notable improvements in both sensitivity and long-term stability, highlighting the effectiveness of flat-top beams in overcoming atomic polarization uniformity limitations and advancing SERF co-magnetometer performance.
Atomic spin gyroscope (ASG) based on comagnetometer is a high sensitive and compact gyroscope for future inertial navigation applications. The start-up time was several hours of the demonstrated ASGs based on 3 He-K or 21 Ne-Rb-K comagnetometer, and only a few inertial navigation applications allow such a long time for preparation. We report the demonstration of an ASG based on 129 Xe-Cs comagnetometer, which decreases the start-up time to 10 minutes and decreases the operation temperature by 40% as well. By operating this ASG in spin exchange relaxation free regime, a sensitivity of 7×10 −5 °/(s Hz 1/2 ) was achieved.