A Cold-Atom Comagnetometer Reaches a Fitted 60-Second Spin-Coherence Time
A new experiment traps the nuclear spins of two ytterbium isotopes in one optical lattice and reports a fitted 60-second spin-coherence time, posting a magnetic noise suppression factor above thirty thousand. Comagnetometry broadly sits at the root of nuclear-spin gyroscopes, the inertial instruments behind navigation without GPS, although this cold-atom comagnetometer demonstration does not measure rotation. Quentir places the demonstration at TRL 4 of 9: a validated laboratory instrument with minute-long spin coherence, several rungs below anything a program office could field; an eventual rotation measurement would provide important readiness evidence but would not by itself validate field deployment.
NRL Puts Cold-Atom Navigation on a Maritime Path
NRL has put cold-atom interferometry on a path toward shipboard testing, aiming to reduce inertial navigation drift when satellite PNT is degraded.