Self-induced oscillations in electronically-coupled fluxgate magnetometers

We present theoretical and experimental investigations of the fundamental idea that coupling-induced oscillations can enhance the sensitivity of an array of magnetic sensors. In particular, we consider arrays made up of fluxgate magnetometers inductively coupled through electronic circuits. The underlying dynamics of the coupled system is more complicated as it shows new spatio-temporal features that are not observed in a single fluxgate. Among these new features, self-induced oscillations in the form of a traveling wave pattern are of particular interest because they can lead to higher sensitivity levels at reduced costs. Details of the experiments, a new signal detection mechanism, and results from numerical bifurcation analyzes are described in this work.