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arXiv:1402.5540 · Physical Review A

Vectorial atomic magnetometer based on coherent transients of laser absorption in Rb vapor

L. Lenci, A. Auyuanet, S. Barreiro, Paulo Valente, A. Lezama, H. Failache

Published Apr 23, 2014• 30 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We have designed and tested an atomic vectorial magnetometer based on the analysis of the coherent oscillatory transients in the transmission of resonant laser light through a Rb vapor cell. We show that the oscillation amplitudes at the Larmor frequency and its first harmonic are related through a simple formula to the angles determining the orientation of the magnetic field vector. The magnetometer was successfully applied to the measurement of the ambient magnetic field.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.89.043836

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We report an all-optical atomic vector magnetometer using dual Bell-Bloom optical pumping beams in a Rb vapor cell. This vector magnetometer consists of two orthogonal optical pumping beams, with amplitude modulations at 85Rb^{85}\mathrm{Rb}85Rb and 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb Larmor frequencies, respectively. We simultaneously detect atomic signals excited by these two pumping beams using a single probe beam in the third direction, and extract the field orientation information using the phase delays between the modulated atomic signals and the driving beams. By adding a Herriott cavity inside the vapor cell, we improve the magnetometer sensitivity. We study the performance of this vector magnetometer in a magnetic field ranging from 100 mG to 500 mG, and demonstrate a field angle sensitivity better than 10 $\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{rad}/{\mathrm{Hz}}^{1/2}$ above 10 Hz.
Here, we describe progress toward realization of a vector magnetometer based on all-optical excitation of an atomic ensemble in a vapor cell under the conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). The EIT resonance amplitudes depend on relative orientations of the three key vectors: laser wave-vector, polarization, and the direction of the magnetic field. By analyzing possible two-photon transitions and their combinations, we can, in principle, analytically calculate the amplitude of various EIT resonances as functions of the relative angles between the magnetic field, polarization and laser propagation vectors. By locking the polarization to one of these maxima, one can determine the plane formed by the magnetic field and the light wave vector to the accuracy better than 0.001 rad. Analysis of the relative resonance amplitude may be used to extract the full information about the magnetic field direction.
We report a rubidium atomic magnetometer based on pump-probe nonlinear magneto-optical rotation. The rubidium vapor cell is placed in a five-layer magnetic shield with inner coils that can generate uniform magnetic fields along the direction of pump beam, and the cell is also placed in the center of a Helmholtz coil that can generate an oscillating magnetic field perpendicular to the direction of pump beam. The atoms are optically pumped by circularly polarized pump beam along a constant magnetic field in a period of time, then the pump beam is turned off and a /2 pulse of oscillating magnetic field for 87Rb atoms is applied. After the above process, the individual atomic magnetic moments become phase coherent, resulting in a transverse magnetization vector precessing at the Larmor frequency in the magnetic field. The linearly polarized probing beam is perpendicular to the direction of magnetic field, and can be seen as a superposition of the left and right circularly polarized light. Because of the different absorptions and dispersions of the left and right circularly polarized light by rubidium atoms, the polarization direction of probing beam rotates when probing beam passes through rubidium vapor cell. The rotation of the polarization is subsequently converted into an electric signal through a polarizing beam splitter. Finally, the decay signal related to the transverse magnetization vector is measured. The Larmor frequency proportional to magnetic field is obtained by the Fourier transform of the decay signal. The value of magnetic field is calculated from the formula:B=(2/) f, where and f are the gyromagnetic ratio and Larmor frequency, respectively. In order to measure the magnetic field in a wide range, the tracking lock mode is proposed and tested. The atomic magnetometer can track the magnetic field jump of 1000 nT or 10000 nT, indicating that the atomic magnetometer has strong locking ability and can be easily locked after start-up. The main performances in different magnetic fields are tested. The results show that the measurement range of the atomic magnetometer is from 100 nT to 100000 nT, the extreme sensitivity is 0.2 pT/Hz1/2, and the magnetic field resolution is 0.1 pT. The transverse relaxation times of the transverse magnetization vector in different magnetic fields are obtained, and the relaxation time decreases with the increase of the magnetic field. When the measurement range is from 5000 nT to 100000 nT, the magnetic field sampling rate of the atomic magnetometer can be adjusted in a range from 1 Hz to 1000 Hz. The atomic magnetometer in high sampling rate can measure weak alternating magnetic field at low frequency. This paper provides an important reference for developing the atomic magnetometer with large measurement range, high sensitivity and high sampling rate.
Vector field measurement is demonstrated with an all-optical scalar atomic magnetometer using intrinsic parameters related to its scalar operation. The Bell-Bloom type atomic magnetometer measures the Larmor precession of cesium atoms through on-resonant absorption of a probe beam. While the AC component of the probe signal is used for the field magnitude measurement, the probe DC signal contains information about the polar angle, defined as the angle between the magnetic field and the probe beam. Additional polar angle information is obtained from the light-shift-induced magnetic field caused by the frequency modulation of the probe beam. With a measurement time of 100 milliseconds, better than 0.02 degree sensitivity has been achieved using a commercial miniaturized sensor at the optimal sensor orientation. The angle measurement accuracy is checked against an optical encoder over the entire polar angle range of 0 to 180 degrees. Better than 1 degree error is recorded over most set polar angles. Azimuthal angle measurement is also exhibited with an additional orthogonally oriented sensor.
Vector field measurement is demonstrated with an all-optical scalar atomic magnetometer using intrinsic parameters related to its scalar operation. The Bell-Bloom type atomic magnetometer measures the Larmor precession of cesium atoms through on-resonant absorption of a probe beam. While the AC component of the probe signal is used for the field magnitude measurement, the probe DC signal contains information about the polar angle, defined as the angle between the magnetic field and the probe beam. Additional polar angle information is obtained from the light-shift-induced magnetic field caused by the frequency modulation of the probe beam. With a measurement time of 100 ms, better than 0.02° sensitivity has been achieved using a commercial miniaturized sensor at the optimal sensor orientation. The angle measurement accuracy is checked against an optical encoder over the entire polar angle range of 0°–180°. Better than 1° error is recorded over most set polar angles. Azimuthal angle measurement is also exhibited with two orthogonally oriented sensors.