Orientation of a Vector Magnetometer Optically Referenced to an External Coordinate System

Abstract

We present a new method to realize a vector magnetometer that has been optically referenced to an external coordinate system. The vector magnetometer is made up of three Hall sensors attached to orthogonal faces of a glass cube. When placed in a homogeneous magnetic field, rotating the vector magnetometer around two axes allows the orientation of each sensor to be determined with respect to the glass cube. The orientation of the glass cube is detected by an autocollimator and optically referenced to an external coordinate system. A direction uncertainty below 130 µrad (which is traceable to angle standards) is achieved.

Three-dimensional coil system for the generation of traceable magnetic vector fields

“…In contrast, the Hall device consists of three individual Hall elements placed on each side of the corner of a glass cube covered in reflective coating. The sensitive volume of the Hall cube is less than 1 mm 3 (Rott et al, 2020). The mirror surfaces allow the external referencing of the tilting and positioning of the cube (Rott, 2021).…”