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Journal of Physics Conference Series

Dual-species atomic interferometric sensor for simultaneous inertial measurement and clock operation

Peiqiang Yan, Weichen Jia, Shengzhe Wang, Yanying Feng

Published Nov 1, 2024• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract The atomic interferometer, serving as a precise measurement tool for multiple physical quantities, holds the potential to establish a fully quantum autonomous “position, navigation, and timing (PNT)” unit. This paper introduces a method for simultaneous inertial measurement and clock operation based on atom interferometry with dual-isotope atomic beams. The corresponding related experimental progress is also reported. A 87Rb Raman-Mach-Zehnder interferometer is presented with a fringe contrast of C = 0.05, providing a foundational sample for further experiments.

DOI
10.1088/1742-6596/2889/1/012058

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Abstract The atomic interferometer, serving as a precise measurement tool for multiple physical quantities, holds the potential to establish a fully quantum autonomous “position, navigation, and timing (PNT)” unit. This paper introduces a method for simultaneous inertial measurement and clock operation based on atom interferometry with dual-isotope atomic beams. The corresponding related experimental progress is also reported. A 87Rb Raman-Mach-Zehnder interferometer is presented with a fringe contrast of C = 0.05, providing a foundational sample for further experiments.
Light-pulsed atomic interferometers provide a promising quantum-based solution for inertial navigation applications. In this paper, we present an atomic interferometric inertial sensor designed to simultaneously measure rotation rate and acceleration, through continuous sampling using dual87Rb atomic beams as matter-wave sources. We observe Raman-Ramsey and Raman-Mach-Zehnder interferences and validate the inertial sensing capability by comparing the results with a classical quartz accelerometer and an optical-fiber gyroscope. Our work can serve as a foundational element for the development of a fully quantum inertial measurement unit characterized with a high data rate and large bandwidth.
We present an interferometric inertial sensor that utilizes two counter-propagating atomic beams with transverse two-dimensional cooling. By employing three parallel and spatially aligned Raman laser beams for Doppler-sensitive Raman transitions, we successfully generate inertia-sensitive Mach-Zehnder interference fringes with an interrogation length of 2L = 54 cm. The sensor’s capability to measure rotation and acceleration simultaneously in dynamic environments is validated through comparative analysis with classical sensors under force oscillation in different directions. Additionally, we conduct experiments on a turntable to calibrate the gyroscope’s scaling factor and address nonlinearity. The angular random walk (ARW) and velocity random walk (VRW) of the sensor are 3×10−4 °/√h and 107 μg/√Hz, respectively, with the long-term stability reaching 9 × 10−4 °/h for rotation and 10 μg for acceleration at an integration time of 1000 s.
We demonstrate a closed-loop light-pulse atom-interferometer inertial sensor that can realize continuous decoupled measurements of acceleration and rotation rate. The sensor operates with double-loop atom interferometers, which share the same Raman light pulses in a spatially separated Mach-Zehnder configuration and use continuous cold atomic beams propagating in opposite directions from two 2D+{\text{2D}}^{+}2D+ magneto-optical trappings. Acceleration and the rotation rate are decoupled and simultaneously measured by the sum and difference of dual-atom-interferometer signals, respectively. The sensitivities of inertial measurements are also increased to be approximately 1.86 times higher than that of a single atom interferometer. The acceleration phase shift is compensated in real time by phase locking these interferometers via the Raman laser phases from the sum-interferometer signal, and the gyroscope performance is improved. We achieve long-term stabilities of $6.1\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{\ensuremath{\mu}}\text{g}$ and 840 nrad/s for the acceleration and the rotation rate, respectively, using a short interrogation time of 0.87 ms (interference area A=0.097mm2A=0.097\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{mm}}^{2}A=0.097mm2). This work provides a building block for an atomic interferometer-based inertial measurement unit for use in field applications that require a high data rate and high stability.
Atom interferometry shows high sensitivity for inertial measurements in the laboratory, but it faces difficulties in field applications because of a trade-off between sensitivity and size. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a small sensor with high resolution for measuring acceleration and rotation in inertial navigation applications. Presented here is a miniaturized inertial sensor capable of measuring acceleration and rotation simultaneously based on high-resolution dual atom interferometers. A sensor head is integrated within a volume of 100 l, in which the vacuum chambers are fabricated by bonding quartz-glass windows with epoxy resin. A photoelectric cabinet is composed of four 3U rack units by integrating optical modules and electronic units. Dual atom interference fringes with a contrast of 29% are observed, and the acceleration and rotation are measured simultaneously by extracting their phase shifts. By developing a temperature compensation method to eliminate phase drifts caused by the thermal deformation of the Raman mirrors and using wave vector reversal to eliminate the phase drifts independent of the direction of the wave vector, measurement resolutions of 40 ng at 518 s and 6.1 nrad/s at 10 880 s are achieved for acceleration and rotation, respectively, from Allan deviations.
The utilization of light-pulse atom interferometry presents a valuable technique that has found application in both fundamental scientific inquiries, such as investigating constants such as measurements of fine structure constant α and gravitational constant G, and practical endeavors including acceleration sensing and rotation measurements. This thesis delves into our implementation of a dual atom interferometer design involving the clock transition 1S0 → 3P0 in strontium, concurrently conducting the interferometric sequence on atoms in both ground and excited states. To facilitate the dual atom interferometer’s operation, we have firstly established a compact experimental setup with a transversely loaded bi-dimensional magneto-optical-trap (2D-MOT) to create a high flux source of cold strontium atoms. Introducing a novel cross-polarized bi-color atomic beam slower, we simultaneously addresses two excited Zeeman substates of the transition 1S0 → 1P1 in strontium-88, significantly enhancing the number of atoms prepared in the 461 nm MOT by around 10-fold. Following the 461 nm MOT, the atomic ensemble undergoes cooling in a 689 nm MOT, achieving atomic temperatures below 1 µK. We also install a network of eight magnetic field probes arranged around the cold atomic sample, enabling precise three-axis active control of magnetic fields down to the milligauss level. With the atoms confined in a 2D lattice at the magic-wavelength of 813.427 nm after the initial preparation phase, we conduct the magnetically-induced clock transition to create a statistical mixture state of ground and excited states. After a velocity selection stage, implementing a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with Bragg pulses operating at the magic-wavelength along the vertical axis, we conduct tests of the weak equivalence principle (WEP). The Eötvös ratio we found in our system stood at (1.8 ± 3.1) × 10−4, mainly limited by the finite temperature of the atomic cloud constraining the interrogation time. Furthermore, the dual atom interferometer scheme enables the measurement of state-dependent force and eventually polarizability difference via the phase shift between the atoms in different states, and we experimentally demonstrate this by introducing an additional light field gradient.