FlyG: a drone-based atomic gradiometer
Gravimeters have been successfully applied for metrology, geology, and geophysics. Atomic gravimeters based on atom interferometry are accurate and have excellent long-term stability. Mobile atomic gravimeters with the ability of deployed field operations would open new applications in gravity-aided navigation, underground water sensing, and volcano monitoring.
Recently, we have demonstrated a mobile atomic gravimeter and applied it for surveying gravity in the Berkeley Hills. Our results show that the local gravity on the top of the hill decreases by 0.1‰ comparing to the gravity on the UC Berkeley campus. Operating in a quiet laboratory, our atomic gravimeter is sensitive enough to detect distant earthquakes and measure ocean tide loading effects.
Now we are developing a drone-based atomic gradiometer. By measuring differential singals of two atomic gravimeters vertically separated, an atomic gradiometer is immune to common-mode vibration noise and thus has the capability to operate on an aircraft. With the technology of developing compact atom interferometers, we use a single-diode laser system and two grating-based magneto-optical traps to implement two simultaneous atomic gravimeters. When it flys, we hope to apply our atomic gradiometer to geodesy, geophysics, metrology, or navigation. Come to visit us if you like doing physics in the sunset!
FlyG Team
Storm Weiner
Frank Ketcham
Siddhant Mal
Benjamin Lloyd
Binhan Hua
Leah Kong
Publications
A flight capable atomic gravity gradiometer with a single laser. Storm Weiner, Xuejian Wu, Zachary Pagel, Dongzoon Li, Jacob Sleczkowski, Francis Ketcham, and Holger Müller, 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Inertial Sensors and Systems (INERTIAL) and Full Text.
Gravity surveys using a mobile atom interferometer. Xuejian Wu, Zachary Pagel, Bola S. Malek, Timothy H. Nguyen, Fei Zi, Daniel S. Scheirer, and Holger Müller, Science Advances 5(9), eaax0800 (2019) and arXiv:1904.09084.
- Secondary reports about this work
- IOP Physics World: Quantum gravimeter drives out of the lab and into the hills.
- Secondary reports about this work
Embedded control system for mobile atom interferometers. Bola S. Malek, Zachary Pagel, Xuejian Wu, Holger Müller, Rev. Sci. Instrum 90, 073103 (2019) and arXiv:1812.01028.
Multiaxis atom interferometry with a single-diode laser and a pyramidal magneto-optical trap. Xuejian Wu, Fei Zi, Jordan Dudley, Ryan J. Bilotta, Philip Canoza, and Holger Müller, Optica 4(12),1545-1551 (2017) and arXiv:1707.08693.