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arXiv:1407.4402 · Physical Review Letters

New Classes of Systematic Effects in Gas Spin Comagnetometers

D. Sheng, Aaron Kabcenell, Michael V. Romalis

Published Oct 16, 2014• 95 citations
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Abstract

Atomic comagnetometers are widely used in precision measurements searching for spin interactions beyond the standard model. We describe a new (3)He-(129)Xe comagnetometer probed by Rb atoms and use it to identify two general classes of systematic effects in gas comagnetometers, one associated with diffusion in second-order magnetic-field gradients and another due to temperature gradients. We also develop and confirm experimentally a general and practical approach for calculating spin relaxation and frequency shifts due to arbitrary magnetic-field gradients.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.113.163002

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Atomic comagnetometers are widely used in precision measurements searching for spin interactions beyond the standard model. We describe a new (3)He-(129)Xe comagnetometer probed by Rb atoms and use it to identify two general classes of systematic effects in gas comagnetometers, one associated with diffusion in second-order magnetic-field gradients and another due to temperature gradients. We also develop and confirm experimentally a general and practical approach for calculating spin relaxation and frequency shifts due to arbitrary magnetic-field gradients.
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We present in this paper a Herriott-cavity-assisted closed-loop Xe isotope gas comagnetometer. In this system, 129Xe^{129}\mathrm{Xe}129Xe and 131Xe^{131}\mathrm{Xe}131Xe atoms are pumped and probed by polarized Rb atoms and continuously driven by oscillating magnetic fields, whose frequencies are kept on resonance by phase-locked loops. Different from other schemes, we use a Herriott cavity to improve the Rb magnetometer sensitivity instead of the parametric modulation method, and this passive method is designed to improve the system stability while maintaining the sensitivity. This system has demonstrated an angle random walk of $0.06{}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}/{\mathrm{h}}^{1/2}$ and a bias instability of $0.2{}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$/h (0.15 $\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{Hz}$) with a bandwidth of 1.5 Hz. By adding a closed-loop Rb isotope comagnetometer, we can extend this system to dual simultaneously working comagnetometers sharing the same cell. This extended system has wide applications in precision measurements, where we can simultaneously and independently measure the coupling of anomalous fields with proton spin and neutron spin.
The atomic comagnetometer is capable of reducing the effect of magnetic-field variations through comparing the synchronous measurement results from at least two magnetometers. A new configuration of comagnetometer is based on an ensemble of identical atoms or molecules, and possesses the ability to suppress the magnetic-field-gradient-induced systematic effect. We present a comprehensive analysis on the systematic effects of a single-species cesium atomic comagnetometer. Experimental results reveal that the dominant systematic effect arises from the light shift. We propose a method to suppress the light-shift-induced systematic effect, combined with quantitative investigations on other sources of systematic effects. The optimized system is able to search for the hypothetical spin-dependent gravitational energy of a proton at a level of ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}19}$ eV.
We describe a ^{3}He-^{129}Xe comagnetometer using ^{87}Rb atoms for noble-gas spin polarization and detection. We use a train of ^{87}Rb π pulses and σ^{+}/σ^{-} optical pumping to realize a finite-field Rb magnetometer with suppression of spin-exchange relaxation. We suppress frequency shifts from polarized Rb by measuring the ^{3}He and ^{129}Xe spin precession frequencies in the dark, while applying π pulses along two directions to depolarize Rb atoms. The plane of the π pulses is rotated to suppress the Bloch-Siegert shifts for the nuclear spins. We measure the ratio of ^{3}He to ^{129}Xe spin precession frequencies with sufficient absolute accuracy to resolve Earth's rotation without changing the orientation of the comagnetometer. A frequency resolution of 7 nHz is achieved after integration for 8 h without evidence of significant drift.
Inside a spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) co-magnetometer with a high-pressure buffer gas atomic cell, the magnetic field gradient causes the decoherence of atomic spins to produce magnetic-field gradient relaxation. This paper presents a new method for the accurate measurement of magnetic field gradient relaxation of alkali metal atoms and inert atoms of strongly coupled spin systems under triaxial magnetic field gradients in the K-Rb-21Ne co-magnetometer. The magnetic field gradient relaxation of alkali metal atoms is measured using a step magnetic field modulation method, and the magnetic field gradient relaxation of inert atoms is measured using a combined free induction decay and spin growth method. The method does not require the use of large background magnetic fields and RF fields to maintain the atoms in the SERF state, does not require additional optics, and is not affected by the pumping or detecting of optical power. A kinetic model that considers a large electron-equivalent magnetic field was designed and a gradient relaxation model was developed. The quadratic coefficients of the experimentally measured gradient relaxation curves fit the theoretical model well over the range of the applied magnetic field gradients, confirming the validity of the proposed method.
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