Flux-Gate Magnetometers Design Peculiarities

The most widespread instrument used today for the measurement of quasi-stationary and slowly fluctuating vector magnetic fields is a flux-gate magnetometer (FGM). The most important parameter characterizing the magnetometer quality is its magnetic noise—its threshold sensitivity or its own noise level (NL). Based on the results of experimental research, we may state that the FGM NL mainly depends on the quality of the magnetic material used for FGM sensor core. The “solid liquid” model explaining the nature of magnetic noise is proposed and substantiated. It is demonstrated that special attention has to be paid to the annealing of the core. A new effect—termed gamma-magnetic normalization—is discovered and discussed. It is shown that the magnetometer NL depends not only on the core length and volume but also on the excitation mode of the core. Besides, the ways to improve other factors, such as power consumption and thermal drift which must be taken into account in order to create a FGM with the highest possible performance, are discussed. Some examples are given of the parameters of present advanced FGMs for geophysical uses.