A novel uniform magnetic field coil structure with two pairs of saddle coils nested is proposed in order to minish the aspect ratio without losing much field uniformity, which is significant in innovative miniature atomic instruments and sensors. Optimal configuration parameters are obtained from the Taylor expansion of the magnetic field. The remainder terms are used to estimate the field uniformity and optimize the configuration while minishing computation time. Compared with traditional saddle coils, the nested saddle coils have unique advantages in miniature applications where the aspect ratios are strictly limited. The optimized nested saddle coils were manufactured by Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC) technology and the magnetic field uniformities were verified experimentally using a flux-gate magnetometer. Furthermore, the example application of a miniature nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) gyro demonstrates the practical use of the nested coils.

We propose a precise method to calibrate the coil constants of spin-precession gyroscopes and optical atomic magnetometers. This method is based on measuring the initial amplitude of Free Induction Decay (FID) of noble gases, from which the π/2 pulse duration can be calculated, since it is inversely proportional to the amplitude of the π/2 pulse. Therefore, the coil constants can be calibrated by measuring the π/2 pulse duration. Compared with the method based on the Larmor precession frequency of atoms, our method can avoid the effect of the pump and probe powers. We experimentally validated the method in a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Gyroscope (NMRG), and the experimental results show that the coil constants are 436.63±0.04 nT/mA and 428.94±0.02 nT/mA in the x and y directions, respectively.

In this study, we investigated the influence of the pump beam on the electronic and nuclear spin polarization homogeneity in the nuclear magnetic resonance gyroscope (NMRG). An analysis method was proposed based on the three dimensional simulation of the spin polarization spatial distribution. The pump power loss due to the aperture on the structure was considered. The average spin polarization and inertia measurement sensitivity were measured experimentally to demonstrate the simulation results. The results indicate that the nuclear spin polarization retains good homogeneity at different beam diameters, while the homogeneity of the electronic spin polarization highly depends on the beam diameter. It also can be seen that the electronic spin polarization homogeneity is more sensitive to pump power than pump beam diameter, while the nuclear spin polarization homogeneity is more sensitive to pump beam diameter than pump power. Moreover, the optimized beam diameter is obtained to balance the polarization and its homogeneity. The study provides reference for the design of the pump beam diameter and beam shaping structure in NMRG.

We propose an average Rb polarization model to analyze the influence of temperature on the spin polarization of Rb and 129Xe in a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Gyroscope (NMRG) with low pump power. This model is essentially based on summing the Rb spin polarization along the direction of the pump beam and dividing the result by the cell length. We experimentally study the spin polarization of Rb and 129Xe atoms as a function of the cell temperature at low values of the pump power. The experimental results and the values calculated with the average Rb polarization model are in good agreement for both Rb and 129Xe. The spin polarization of Rb atoms decreases with increasing cell temperature, with a decreasing trend which is rapid at temperatures below 110 °C, and slower at temperatures above 110 °C. The experimental values of the 129Xe polarization, obtained with a pump power of 1 mW, first increase to a maximum P  129Xe−ave = 0.66 % at 118 °C, and then decreases as the temperature increases. Increasing the power of the pump beam shifts the temperature maximum to a higher value. Our model is suitable for the analysis of Rb and 129Xe polarization at high temperature and low pump power, i.e. when the power of the pump beam is completely absorbed within a few millimeters of the front window of the cell. Therefore, the present model can provide theoretical support for the improvement of the Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR) of the NMRG, and to determine its optimal working temperature.

No abstract