Forty of Seventy: Research Laboratory of Quantum Magnetometry
70 years of Phystech and almost 40 years of the Quantum Magnetometry Laboratory, which was opened by the decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on June 29, 1979. The industry laboratory of the Ministry of Geology – and then all the ministries were a little from the Ministry of Defense – was aimed at creating quantum magnetometers based on the principles of magnetic resonance – optical orientation of atoms and dynamic polarization of nuclei, where there was a significant fundamental reserve at the Department of Theoretical Physics of the Physics and Technology Faculty of UPI. It was theoretical physics, as strange as it may be for an applied industry laboratory: There is nothing more practical than a good theory. Searching for hidden objects and mineral deposits – this is what such magnetometers are intended for, capable of precision measurements of the geomagnetic field module to thousandths and even millionths of a percent. Currently, the quantum magnetometry laboratory is a self-supporting research and production laboratory at the Department of Theoretical Physics and Applied Mathematics, and the term “applied” is key, but the most key term is “self-supporting”. “We use magnetometers “to the fullest”, thanks to your efforts they are trouble-free in operation, and allow us to develop excellent productivity with excellent measurement quality. All this allows us to make a significant contribution to the overall geological productivity. Our result for five and a half years of work is 12 discovered and put on the balance sheet deposits of copper, gold, molybdenum, antimony, silver, iron. Your contribution is also in this!” – this is how the chief geophysicist of “Vostokgeologiya” A.B. Karmanov described the Overhauser magnetometer MMPOS (one of the laboratory’s products).
Looking at our Canadian colleagues and neighbors at the institute, we have learned to produce real devices of competitive quality. It is not so difficult to produce devices – it is important not to be afraid of difficulties and love customers. Scientific instrumentation is a highly profitable field, where the main component of success is intelligence and its carriers.
40 years of the laboratory are several generations of engineers, researchers and teachers, originating from the founder of the laboratory, head of the Department of Theoretical Physics Chirkov A.K. and the first head of the laboratory Sobolev A.S., who organized its effective work. Special mention should be made of the dedicated work of key researchers and leading developers, who have accumulated the experience of previous contractual work on mastering the principles of operation and fundamental technical solutions for anti-submarine defense.
In the initial period, ONIL KM together with NPO Rudgeofizika developed the geological exploration aeromagnetometer MMV-215, which became a laureate of the VDNKh (Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy of the USSR), as well as the most widespread pedestrian proton Overhauser magnetometer MMP-203u in the USSR (about 3 thousand were produced by the 90s). The sensors were the first to use the principle of dynamic polarization of nuclei in a solution of the Copinger radical (Galvinoxyl), which showed the effect of light saturation discovered by Associate Professor V.I. Bal’din. Now, in the 21st century, this effect is again being intensively studied, called Heisenberg hyperpolarization. Unfortunately, the radical was not stable enough (0.5-1 year), which, oddly enough, became the key to the survival of the laboratory in the 90s.
The second generation of employees under the leadership of the new head of the laboratory V.A. Sapunov carried out maintenance of unstable serial sensors of these magnetometers and their modernization using a new superstable radical. A promising, although outwardly not corresponding to standard requirements, class of new radicals was discovered and studied in the dissertation of V.A. Sapunov, where he also found a phenomenological and theoretical justification for the above-mentioned hyperpolarization effect, and new effects were discovered that have applied and fundamental significance for the Overhauser dynamic polarization of nuclei. Dissertations were defended, in particular, by Andrey Tregubenkov, under the supervision of one of the leading theorists of the Department of Theoretical Physics, Associate Professor S.P. Dovgopol. His work was devoted to the application of nitroxyl radicals to simpler 4- and 6-level quantum systems, which are still used in foreign analogues. Here it can be noted that the sensors of Overhauser magnetometers, outwardly simple, are in fact laser quantum systems, where the pumping of electron levels and generation of enhanced precession of the solvent nuclear subsystem are performed. A significant contribution to the development of such radicals was made by professional chemists, both directly from UPI (V.F. Gryazev and Vera Berseneva), and from the Moscow ICP, in particular, Academician A.L. Buchachenko and his colleagues: Olga Emmanuel, A.M. Sakharov, and others. An invaluable contribution to the development, or rather even the salvation of the NIL KM, when problems arose with Moscow chemists, was made by Academician V.N. Charushin, who, understanding the national economic importance of magnetometry, instructed leading researcher D.M. Chizhov to master the synthesis – and he synthesizes the purest radicals for our magnetometers.
It is worth mentioning two dissertations of the Denisov family, teachers of the TFPM and part-time employees of the NRL KM, on improving the algorithms for processing precession signals, which increased the competitiveness of the results. The contribution of the IGP UB RAS is also invaluable, where L.A. Muravyov, defending his dissertation, demonstrated the high efficiency of the POS Overhauser magnetometers and its real geophysical parameters using examples of studying gold ore deposits. There is also a more significant example of fruitful cooperation with the IGP UB RAS – A.A. Kusonsky and P.S. Martyshko decided to buy the first version of the POS-3 vector magnetometer, and the magnetologist of the ARTI observatory, a graduate of the TFPM Pavel Borodin, seriously helps with its metrological verification, finding more and more shortcomings and effects, which is worthy of a dissertation work that does not interest him. Unfortunately, there are other unprotected dissertations, although the computer calculation of Overhauser sensors by Gavrilin A.S., taking into account the properties of new radicals, allowed to create an ultra-compact non-orientable sensor that has no world analogues. Now the laboratory produces a borehole magnetometer LOM-2 based on such sensors, which has found application in low-magnetic deposits (kimberlites, bauxites, etc.), for example, in ALROSA and in China.
The key event in the history of the Research Laboratory of Quantum Magnetometry was the arrival (he dropped in in passing) of the leading geophysicist from NEWMONT Gold Bob Anderson (USA), who, having seen the pilot sample of the POS magnetometer in a wooden case, took it for a try and ordered a batch, possibly in defiance of a competitor from Canada GEM Systems. Only after that, domestic users believed in our results, as they say, there is no prophet in his own country – but no one left, and the competition continued. Since 2000, about 500 POS magnetometers for observatory and geological exploration purposes, various modifications, have been produced by individual orders. In fact, half of the magnetic exploration parties of the Russian Federation have been using them for 15 years, and many are still working, thanks to the superstability of the new radical and the reliability of the electronics developed by a graduate of the Department of Theoretical Physics, senior researcher D.V. Savelyev (03.09.1966 – 24.01.2019). Unfortunately, his teacher Igor Kurbatov passed away young, unable to withstand the period of maturing innovations.
The latest period is the heyday of nanotechnology and innovation, and the laboratory is still developing and producing magnetometers, but it has also been touched by the wind of change with the arrival of the young generation of bachelors and masters. Within the framework of the UrFU innovative development program, the company MIP “Quantum Magnetic Pipe Test” was opened with 25% participation of UrFU. The director of the company Evgeny Narkhov, who is also a research fellow at the NIL KM, and his young colleagues are famous not only for studying at all kinds of entrepreneurial courses up to MBA, participating in innovative forums, exhibitions, “hackathons” and START grants, but also for real world-class achievements.
The main thing is that they are young, and having seen, for example, the falling Chelyabinsk meteorite, without thinking, they take magnetometers and go looking – and they find it! It was they who, using the MMPOS-2gps gradiometer, constructed a magnetic map of the meteorite’s impact site, localizing the coordinates and depth, which were useful to the government of the Chelyabinsk region and the organizer of the meteorite expedition, Professor Grokhovsky V.I., when planning the meteorite’s recovery. After the meteorite was recovered, repeated magnetic mapping confirmed the accuracy of the calculations – and the skill of the geological prospectors, bachelors of the Department of Technical Physics Andrey Fedorov and Dmitry Milyukov. This was a good start, which was later developed in relation to the new technology of pipeline scanning.
Then there were two sea seasons in the Arctic at Baydaratskaya Bay, conducted jointly with the departments of the oceanology institutes of Chilingarov A.N. (V.V. Arkhipov) and the laboratory of Gorodnitsky A.I. (Doctor of Physics and Mathematics Ivanenko A.I.), under the supervision of Gazprom VNIIGAZ. During the “field work” in harsh conditions, high efficiency and accuracy of localization of the underwater gas pipeline running along the bottom of the Kara Sea were demonstrated, using a new four-channel magnetometer – gradiometer. The results formed the basis of scientific articles.
But the real work does not wait. We need to have time to demonstrate the new POS-4 at the ITHERMAGNET seminar in Austria, hoping that this absolute vector magnetometer, which has no direct world analogue, developed within the framework of the economic agreement between UrFU and the Federal Center for Geophysical Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Academician A.D. Gvishiani), will be in demand at magnetic Arctic observatories and inclined drilling support systems.
Young blood boils, heated by economic interests, and now three POS-1aero magnetometers, with a recorder developed by TFPM master’s student Alexander Shirokov, are flying with the Irkutsk Technopark (Alexander Parshin and Yu.A. Davydenko) on hexacopters to look for gold. In 2019, Evgeny Narkhov won the Sverdlovsk Region competition and received a new hexacopter for the development of methods for using unmanned vehicles. And, in addition, the successes of Quantum Magnetic Pipe Test LLC have been noted with gratitude and prizes from innovative structures, including UrFU itself.
It is too early to sum up – there are other ideas, since the technology of Overhauser dynamic polarization of nuclei and quantum magnetometry are good both due to a wide range of applications: “From space to the depths of the sea”, and some fundamental conservatism, which allows us to remain competitive. We have not been to space yet, but we have developed and supplied deep magnetometers, for example, to Italy or the Ministry of Emergency Situations, but all this as co-executors, and other dreams, such as Overhauser relaxometry and MRI – we will leave for the next anniversary of the Physicotechnical Institute.