Progress on atomic gyroscope

Abstract

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.