Background
The magnetometer is used for detecting weak magnetic field signals and is widely applied to the fields of medicine, biology, geological exploration, material detection and the like. In recent years, an atomic magnetometer which uses alkali metal atoms (such as potassium atoms, rubidium atoms, cesium atoms and the like) filled in a glass gas chamber as working substances is a research hotspot, and a pulse pumping type atomic magnetometer generally comprises a pumping laser, a detection laser, an atomic gas chamber, a radio frequency coil and a photoelectric detector. The pulse pumping magnetometer polarizes atoms to generate macroscopic magnetic moment by using an optical pumping method, because the atoms in a magnetic field precess around the magnetic moment, the probe light detects the projection of the rotation of the magnetic moment, the rotation frequency is in direct proportion to the size of an external magnetic field, and the external magnetic field value can be obtained by analyzing the frequency information of the rotation of the magnetic moment.
According to the analysis of a magnetic dipole model, a magnetic field is attenuated by a third power along with the distance, and in order to accurately detect the magnetic field generated by an object and eliminate the interference of a background magnetic field, a gradient method is generally used for measurement. One atomic magnetometer can collect magnetic field information of a single place, and a plurality of atomic magnetometers can form a gradient magnetometer to obtain gradient information. The gradient magnetometer is generally provided with a plurality of signal ends, when a magnetic field source signal is close to one of the signal ends, the near point signal end feels a magnetic field signal, the far point signal end cannot feel due to the attenuation of the magnetic field signal, the magnetic field source signal is obtained by subtracting the near point signal end and the far point signal end, background magnetic noise in space and common mode noise in an optical path and a circuit system are reduced, and the signal-to-noise ratio of the magnetometer is improved.
The traditional gradient detection method is to subtract signals of two different magnetometers to obtain a differential signal, and because the two magnetometers have different signal amplitudes and different noise levels, the error obtained by direct subtraction is larger, the size is large, and the cost is high.
The traditional gradient magnetometer adopts an optical pump magnetometer or a fluxgate magnetometer to obtain gradient signals, but because output signals of other types of magnetometers such as the optical pump magnetometer or the fluxgate magnetometer are mostly relative voltage signals, calibration is needed, and absolute consistency cannot be maintained. In addition, the radio frequency coil is arranged in the traditional gradient magnetometer and cannot be shared, so that a certain distance needs to be separated to avoid crosstalk of adjacent magnetometers, the distance between the gradient magnetometers cannot be set at will, and the application occasions of the gradient magnetometers are limited.
The signal of the pulse pumping magnetometer is an atom Larmor precession frequency signal, is an absolute magnetometer without calibration, has high sensitivity and no interference with each other, and is suitable for magnetic field gradient detection. As shown in the structure diagram 1, a pulse pumping magnetometer in the prior art includes: the device comprises a pump light laser 6, a polarizer 2, a quarter glass slide 5, a beam expander 12, a detection light laser 1, a polarizer 2, a radio frequency coil 3, an atom gas chamber 4, a polarization detection system 7, a data acquisition and analysis system 8 and the like. The pulse type high-power laser 6 is used as pumping light, a magnetic field B to be detected sets a pumping light pulse time sequence along the direction of the pumping light, the laser is changed into circularly polarized light after passing through a polarizer and a quarter glass 5 from the pumping light laser 6, the circularly polarized light is changed into a large light spot through a beam expander 12 to irradiate the whole atomic gas chamber, the laser which is detuned with the resonance frequency of a detected atom is used as detecting light 1, linearly polarized light is obtained through a polarizer 2, information of the polarization change of the detecting light is converted into an electric signal through a polarization detection system 7, the electric signal is acquired and analyzed by a data acquisition and analysis system 8 to obtain a result, when a magnetometer works, the pumping light is turned off after the pumping action is finished, a radio frequency pi/2 pulse is applied for a period of time, the frequency is approximate to the larmor precession frequency of, the signal is represented by an attenuated sinusoidal oscillation curve, the frequency is Larmor precession frequency corresponding to the magnetic field and is in direct proportion to the size of the magnetic field B to be measured. The signals are collected and analyzed by a data collection system to obtain the B value of the current magnetic field to be measured. The polarization detection system 7 can be composed of a polarization beam splitter prism and two photodiodes and converts polarization change information into an electric signal; the data acquisition and analysis system 8 may be composed of a data acquisition card and corresponding data analysis software, and are all conventional and general technologies.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to provide a gradient detection system based on a pulse pumping magnetometer, which combines two pulse pumping magnetometers together to share pumping light or detecting light, and subtracts signals from a signal end or an atom gas chamber to extract magnetic field gradient information, thereby effectively improving the consistency of channels, improving the signal-to-noise ratio and reducing the volume of the system.
In order to achieve the purpose, the invention provides the following technical scheme: a gradient detection system based on a pulse pumping magnetometer comprises a detection laser, a pulse pumping light laser, a polarizer, a quarter glass slide, a radio frequency coil, an atomic gas chamber, a polarization detection system and a data acquisition and processing system, wherein detection light emitted by the detection laser enters the polarization detection system and the data acquisition and processing system after passing through the atomic gas chamber for data processing; a pulse type pump light laser is arranged on one side of the atomic gas chamber, which is vertical to the detection light, and the pump light emitted by the pulse type pump light laser enters the atomic gas chamber after passing through a polarizer, a quarter glass slide and a beam expander; the method is characterized in that a pair of radio frequency coils is arranged around an atom gas chamber, and the atom gas chamber is formed by arranging a first atom gas chamber and a second atom gas chamber at intervals in parallel; the pump light emitted by the pulse type pump light laser linearly passes through the first atomic gas chamber and the second atomic gas chamber, or one pump light laser is arranged on the side surface of one atomic gas chamber vertical to the serial direction of the two atomic gas chambers, and the pump light emitted by the pump light laser is divided into two paths by a 45-degree reflector or a polarization beam splitter prism and enters the first atomic gas chamber and the second atomic gas chamber in parallel; one or two detection lasers are arranged on the side surfaces of the first atomic gas chamber and the second atomic gas chamber, which are vertical to the pump light; dividing the detection light into two uniform beams by using a half glass slide and a polarization beam splitter prism, and simultaneously arranging two sets of polarization detection systems and data acquisition and processing systems corresponding to the polarization detection systems; when the detection laser is arranged, after the detection light passes through the first atomic air chamber, the detection light reversely passes through the second atomic air chamber by adopting two 45-degree reflectors and enters a set of polarization detection system and data acquisition and processing system for data processing.
The opposite sides of the first atom air chamber and the second atom air chamber extend to each other and are combined into an atom air chamber.
The invention has the technical effects that: the signal of the pulse pumping magnetometer is an absolute signal, is not limited by the difference of signal amplitudes in each air chamber, does not need calibration and calibration, and has good consistency; the pulse pumping magnetometer can obtain a differential signal in the atomic gas chamber, most common-mode signals are subtracted, the signal-to-noise ratio is high, and the measurement accuracy is improved; the pulse pumping magnetometers are not interfered with one another, any detection interval can be set, and even the detection of gradient information is completed in one air chamber, so that the pulse pumping magnetometers have a wider application scene; in the specific implementation, the pump light or the probe light can be shared, the complexity of the system is reduced, the volume of the system is reduced, and the cost is reduced.
Detailed Description
The invention will be further described with reference to specific embodiments, and the advantages and features of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds. These examples are illustrative only and do not limit the scope of the present invention in any way. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, and that such changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
Referring to the embodiment shown in fig. 2, the atomic gas cell comprises a first atomic gas cell 4 and a second atomic gas cell 41, wherein a pump light laser 6, a polarizer 2, a quarter glass 5 and a beam expander 12 are arranged at one end of the first atomic gas cell 4; and radio frequency coils 3 are arranged at two ends of the detection light paths of the two atomic gas chambers. The side of the first atomic gas chamber 4 is provided with a detection light laser 1 and a polarizer 2, the other side of the second atomic gas chamber 41 of the first atomic gas chamber 4 is provided with a 45-degree reflector 9, and the side of the second atomic gas chamber 41 opposite to the 45-degree reflector 91 is provided with a polarization detection system 7 and a data acquisition and processing system 8. The pump light emitted by the pump light laser 6 passes through the polarizer 2, the quarter glass 5 and the beam expander 12 to become circularly polarized light with large light spots, and sequentially passes through the first atom gas chamber 4 and the second atom gas chamber 41; the detection light laser 1 passes through the polarizer 2, then passes through the first atomic gas chamber 4, then passes through the first reflecting mirror 9 and the second reflecting mirror 91, deflects by 180 degrees, then passes through the second atomic gas chamber 41, and finally irradiates on the polarization detection system 7. During working, the time sequence of the pumping light direction along the magnetic field B to be detected and the pulse pumping light and the pi/2 pulse is set, and the generated signals are collected and analyzed by the data collecting and processing system 8. The polarization detection system 7 and the data acquisition and processing system 8 are conventional in the art.
Because circular polarization pump light pumping effect, the atom produces macroscopic magnetic moment, and the magnetic moment precesses around the magnetic field direction, and pump light closes after about 1 millisecond, applys pi/2 pulse through the coil and rotates the magnetic moment rotation plane to probe light place plane, and probe light detects the precession signal of atom through first atom air chamber 4 this moment, ignores the relaxation process of atom in shorter time, and the signal that probe light detected this moment is:
g1(t)=Asin(ω1t+c1)
wherein A is the signal amplitude, omega1,c1Larmor precession frequency and initial phase of atoms in the first atom gas chamber, respectively
The detection light passes through the first reflector 9 and the second reflector 91, deflects for 180 degrees and then passes through the second atom air chamber 41, the detection light is far detuned, the atoms almost do not absorb the detection light, the detection light is opposite to the original incidence direction, so the obtained signals are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction, and the precession frequency and the initial phase of the atoms at the moment are omega2,c2:
g2(t)=-A sin(ω2t+c2),
The total signal Y on the detector is the sum of two signals:
Y=A sin(ω1t+c1)-A sin(ω2t+c2)
the detection light passes through the
polarization detection system 7 to generate a final signal, and because the detection light passes through the air chamber once, the rotation of the polarization surface is small, the nonlinear change caused by the polarization beam splitter prism is ignored, and the final signal can be approximately considered to be a signal Y which is output after being amplified by a circuit in a certain proportion. Due to omega
1And omega
2Relatively close, in a short time
The sum frequency terms are filtered out by a filter, the final signal amplitude is proportional to the frequency difference value and linearly changes along with time, and the final detected signal Q is approximately:
Q=K(ω1-ω2)t+c
k is an amplification parameter of a circuit in the system, a value of K can be obtained through calibration, and a slope, namely K (omega) can be obtained through fitting data1-ω2) To obtain the larmor precession frequency difference (ω) of the atoms in the two atomic gas chambers1-ω2). The gyromagnetic ratio γ is defined as the ratio of the angular frequency to the magnetic induction intensity of alkali metal atoms when larmor precession is performed in a magnetic field (the gyromagnetic ratio is a constant, the gyromagnetic ratio is different for different alkali metal atoms, for example, for rubidium atom, the gyromagnetic ratio is 7 hz/nt), and assuming that the distance between the centers of the crossing regions of the probe light and the pump light in the two atomic gas chambers is L, the gradient G is:
G(ω1-ω2)/(2πγ*L)
referring to fig. 3, the arrangement of the first atom gas cell 4, the second atom gas cell 41, the pump laser 6, and the quarter-glass 5 is the same as that of the previous embodiment. The difference is that one side of each of the two atomic gas chambers is provided with a polarization detection system 7, the detection light laser 1 is uniformly divided into two beams by a half glass sheet 10 and a polarization beam splitter prism 11, the first beam of detection light enters the first atomic gas chamber 4 after passing through a polarizer 2, the second beam of detection light enters the second atomic gas chamber 41 after passing through a 45-degree reflector 9 and the polarizer 2, and the output ends of the two polarization detection systems 7 are connected with a data acquisition and processing system 8. The first-order gradient measurement is realized in the gradient magnetometer provided by the embodiment by using the first atomic gas chamber 4 and the second atomic gas chamber 41, the first detection light and the second detection light, and the first polarization detection system and the second polarization detection system, and the principle is basically the same as that of the previous embodiment (the difference is subtraction at the circuit end, and the embodiment of fig. 2 is subtraction in the atomic gas chamber, which is basically similar in nature). Optionally, an atomic gas chamber, a probe light and a polarization analysis system can be added to realize multi-order gradient, so that higher gradient performance indexes can be obtained.
Referring to fig. 4, the difference between this embodiment and the first embodiment is that the positions of the pump laser 6 and the probe laser 1 are interchanged, that is, the routes of the pump light and the probe light are interchanged, and the other devices such as the lens and the coil are arranged in the same manner. The pump light laser 6 provides pulse pump light, the detection light laser 1 provides detection light, the pump light is changed into circular polarized light after passing through the quarter glass 5, the pump light passes through the first atom gas chamber 4, then is deflected by 180 degrees through the first reflector 9 and the second reflector 91 and then passes through the second atom gas chamber 41, because the atoms generate macroscopic magnetic moments under the pumping action of the circularly polarized pump light, but the propagation directions of the pump light in the first atom air chamber 4 and the second atom air chamber 41 are opposite, the generated precession signals are also opposite, the time sequence of the pump light direction along the magnetic field B to be detected and the pulse pump light and the pi/2 pulse is set during the work, the detection light sequentially passes through the two atomic gas chambers to detect two signals which are reversely precessed, and finally irradiates the polarization detection system 7, and the generated signals are collected and analyzed by the data collection and processing system 8, and the data analysis process is the same as the embodiment shown in fig. 2.
Referring to fig. 5, the embodiment is substantially the same as the embodiment shown in fig. 4, except that the pump light in fig. 4 is divided into two uniform pump lights by a half glass 10 and a polarization beam splitter 11 after passing through a polarizer 2 and a beam expander 12, and then changed into left circularly polarized light and right circularly polarized light by two quarter glass 5, and the left circularly polarized light and the right circularly polarized light enter a first atom gas chamber 4 and a second atom gas chamber 41 respectively, and the left circularly polarized light and the right circularly polarized light excite atoms to generate opposite precession signals; the detection light configuration is completely consistent with that of fig. 4, and the detection light sequentially passes through the two atomic gas chambers, detects two signals which are reversely screwed, and finally irradiates on the polarization detection system 7, and the generated signals are collected and analyzed by the data collection and processing system 8, and the data analysis process is the same as the embodiment shown in fig. 2.
Referring to fig. 6, in the gradient magnetometer provided in this embodiment, the first atomic gas cell 4 and the second atomic gas cell 41 in the above embodiments (the embodiment is based on the embodiment shown in fig. 4, and is also applicable to the above other embodiments) are combined and implemented by using a sufficiently long atomic gas cell 4, so that all the characteristics of 2 independent pulse pumping magnetometers are ensured to be the same, high working consistency is achieved, errors of the equipment are eliminated, the gradient measurement precision is higher, and the cost is reduced.
The embodiments in the present description are described in a progressive manner, each embodiment focuses on differences from other embodiments, and the same and similar parts among the embodiments are referred to each other.
According to the invention, two pulse pumping magnetometers are combined together, pump light or probe light is shared, signals are subtracted from each other in a signal end or an atom gas chamber, magnetic field gradient information is extracted, the consistency of a channel is effectively improved, the signal to noise ratio is inhibited, and the volume of a system is reduced.