Enhanced atomic co-magnetometry for inertial sensing

该项目旨在推动原子自旋陀螺仪(ASG)领域向商业导航级设备的发展。ASGs利用了热蒸气中原子自旋的拉莫进动，热蒸气中含有碱金属和稀有气体原子的混合物。除了潜在的导航级性能，ASG还得益于简单、坚固的硬件，这是小型化的理想选择。该项目中的活动旨在开发和测试新技术，这些技术将导致性能与最先进的基于实验室的系统相媲美或更好，但具有简化的、不那么复杂的体系结构，更适合实验室外的应用，以及ASG瞄准惯性导航的商业化。一方面，这将填补目前实验室ASG与第一批工业原型之间的性能差距，另一方面，它将使一个仍充满未开发(量子)潜力的平台更接近商业化，无论是在集成水平上的性能还是在绝对性能方面，它都有能力超越现有技术(如光学和MEMS陀螺)。我们提出的技术是基于对原子气体稳定的空间扩散模式的综合开发，以及在我们小组内开发的用于差分和自我调节操作的方法。随着陀螺短期灵敏度、长期稳定性和自调整工作模式的显著提高，我们将具体目标是实现稳健的陀螺，与仪器小型化兼容，以及在恶劣环境条件下的实验室外应用。这项技术开发完美地补充了英国正在进行的几项与商业合作伙伴合作开发原子自旋系统仪器的努力。该项目的结果也将引起从事原子磁学和量子科学工作的更广泛的学术界和工业界的兴趣。

This project aims at advancing the field of Atomic Spin Gyroscopes (ASGs) towards the development of a commercial navigation grade device. ASGs exploit the Larmor precession of atomic spins in thermal vapours that contain a mixture of alkali-metal and noble gas atoms. Besides the potential for navigation grade performance, ASG benefit from a simple, robust hardware, which is ideal for miniaturisation. The activities within this project aim at developing and testing new techniques which will lead to performances comparable to or better than the best state-of-the-art laboratory-based systems, but with a simplified, less sophisticated architecture, more suitable for the out-of-the-lab application, and commercialization of ASG targeting inertial navigation. On one side this will fill the current gap in the performances between laboratory based ASGs and the first industrial prototypes, on the other side it will bring closer to commercialization a platform still full of unexplored (quantum) potential, which has the capability to surpass existent technology (such as optical and MEMs gyros) both in terms of performance over integration level and of absolute performance. The techniques we propose are based on the combined exploitation of stable spatial diffusion modes of the atomic gases, and methodologies developed, within our groups, for differential and self-adjusting operation. With a significant improvement of the short-term gyro sensitivity, long-term stability, and self-adjusting operation modes, we will specifically target the realization of robust gyros, compatible with apparatus miniaturization, and out-of-the-lab application in adverse environmental conditions. This technology development ideally complements several ongoing UK efforts for the development of the atomic spin system instrumentation, performed in collaboration with commercial partners. The results of the project will be also of interest for the wider academic and industrial community working in atomic magnetometry, and quantum science.