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arXiv:1808.03310 · Review of Scientific Instruments

Magnetic field stabilization system for atomic physics experiments

B. Merkel, K. Thirumalai, J. E. Tarlton, V. M. Schäfer, Christopher J. Ballance, T. P. Harty, D. M. Lucas

Published Apr 1, 2019• 59 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Atomic physics experiments commonly use millitesla-scale magnetic fields to provide a quantization axis. As atomic transition frequencies depend on the magnitude of this field, many experiments require a stable absolute field. Most setups use electromagnets, which require a power supply stability not usually met by commercially available units. We demonstrate the stabilization of a field of 14.6 mT to 4.3 nT rms noise (0.29 ppm), compared to noise of >100 nT without any stabilization. The rms noise is measured using a field-dependent hyperfine transition in a single 43Ca+ ion held in a Paul trap at the center of the magnetic field coils. For the 43Ca+ “atomic clock” qubit transition at 14.6 mT, which depends on the field only in second order, this would yield a projected coherence time of many hours. Our system consists of a feedback loop and a feedforward circuit that control the current through the field coils and could easily be adapted to other field amplitudes, making it suitable for other applications such as neutral atom traps.

DOI
10.1063/1.5080093

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Atomic physics experiments commonly use millitesla-scale magnetic fields to provide a quantization axis. As atomic transition frequencies depend on the magnitude of this field, many experiments require a stable absolute field. Most setups use electromagnets, which require a power supply stability not usually met by commercially available units. We demonstrate the stabilization of a field of 14.6 mT to 4.3 nT rms noise (0.29 ppm), compared to noise of >100 nT without any stabilization. The rms noise is measured using a field-dependent hyperfine transition in a single 43Ca+ ion held in a Paul trap at the center of the magnetic field coils. For the 43Ca+ “atomic clock” qubit transition at 14.6 mT, which depends on the field only in second order, this would yield a projected coherence time of many hours. Our system consists of a feedback loop and a feedforward circuit that control the current through the field coils and could easily be adapted to other field amplitudes, making it suitable for other applications such as neutral atom traps.
Cold atom experiments usually need a controllable and low-noise bias magnetic field to provide a quantization axis. Most labs need home-made stabilization of the field according to the actual setup, as commercially available power supply cannot directly satisfy their requirements. Here, by measuring the field fluctuations and active feedback modulating current supply of the applied magnetic field, we successfully demonstrate a field of 10.58 G with a stability to the level of 2.8 × 10−7 in a duration of 5 min. The root mean square noise is reduced to 0.05 mG, compared to the noise of 1.3 mG without stabilization. The coherence time of the magnetic-field sensitive transition between the rubidium ground states F=1,mF=−1 and 1,0, as measured by Rabi oscillation, is extended to 19.2 ms from the unstabilized value of 1.3 ms. This result is long enough for most experiments on quantum simulation and precision measurement. As our system has no passive magnetic shielding and additional compensation coils, it is highly simple and compact to provide the stable magnetic field and would be adapted to various applications with cold atoms.
Abstract In ultracold quantum gases, the interactions between the individual atoms can be controlled by applying magnetic bias fields. As magnetic field fluctuations limit the precision here, typically a feedback loop needs to be employed to regulate the current through a pair of Helmholtz coils. No commercially available magnetic field sensor allows to measure large fields directly with high enough precision, leading to many unsatisfactory solutions being used in experiments. Here, we demonstrate a direct magnetic field stabilization in a regime previously not accessible, using NV centers as the magnetic field sensor. This allows us to measure and stabilize fields of 4.66 mT down to 12 nT RMS noise over the course of 24 h, measured on a 1 Hz bandwidth. We achieve a control of better than 1 ppm after 20 min of integration time, ensuring high long-term stability for experiments. This approach extends direct magnetic field control to strong magnetic fields, which could enable new precise quantum simulations in this regime.
Accurate control of magnetic fields is crucial for cold-atom experiments, often necessitating custom-designed control systems due to limitations in commercially available power supplies.Here, we demonstrate precise and flexible control of a static magnetic field by employing a field-programmable gate array and a feedback loop.This setup enables us to maintain exceptionally stable current with a fractional stability of 1 ppm within 30 s.The error signal of the feedback loop exhibited a noise level of 10 -5 A•Hz -1/2 for control bandwidths below 10 kHz.Utilizing this precise magnetic field control system, we investigate the second-order Zeeman shift in the context of cold-atom coherent population-trapping (CPT) clocks.Our analysis reveals the second-order Zeeman coefficient to be 574.21Hz/G 2 , with an uncertainty of 1.36 Hz/G 2 .Consequently, the magnetic field stabilization system we developed allows us to achieve a second-order Zeeman shift below 10 -14 , surpassing the long-term stability of current cold-atom CPT clocks.
We demonstrate a simple magnetic field stabilization technique in a Bose-Einstein condensate experiment. Our technique is based on the precise measurement of the current fluctuations in the main magnetic field coils and amounts to their feedforward compensation using an auxiliary coil. It has the advantage of simplicity as the auxiliary coils can be straightforwardly driven at the relevant frequencies (<1 kHz). The performances of the different components (power supply, current transducer, electronics…) are precisely characterized. In addition, for optimal stability, the ambient magnetic field is also measured and compensated. The magnetic field stability around 57 G is measured by Ramsey spectroscopy of a magnetic field sensitive radio frequency transition between two spin states of potassium 39, and the shot-to-shot fluctuations are reduced to 64(7) μG rms, i.e., at the 1 × 10-6 level. In the context of our experiment, this result opens interesting prospects for the study of three-body interactions in Bose-Einstein condensate potassium spin mixtures.
A ultralow noise magnetic field is essential for many branches of scientific research. Examples include experiments conducted on ultracold atoms, quantum simulations, and precision measurements. In ultracold atom experiments specifically, a bias magnetic field will often serve as a quantization axis and be applied for Zeeman splitting. As atomic states are usually sensitive to magnetic fields, a magnetic field characterized by ultralow noise as well as high stability is typically required for experimentation. For this study, a bias magnetic field is successfully stabilized at 14.5 G, with the root mean square value of the noise reduced to 18.5 μG (1.28 ppm) by placing μ-metal magnetic shields together with a dynamical feedback circuit. Long-time instability is also regulated consistently below 7 μG. The level of noise exhibited in the bias magnetic field is further confirmed by evaluating the coherence time of a Bose-Einstein condensate characterized by Rabi oscillation. It is concluded that this approach can be applied to other physical systems as well.
Abstract Well controlled and highly stable magnetic fields are desired for a wide range of applications in physical research, including quantum metrology, sensing, information processing, and simulation. Here we introduce a low-cost hybrid assembly of rare-earth magnets and magnetic field coils to generate a field strength of ≃\simeq ≃ ≃ 10.9 mT with a calculated spatial variation of less than 10−6 within a diameter of spherical volume of 150 μm. We characterise its tuneability and stability performance using a single Mg+ atom confined in a radio-frequency surface-electrode trap under ultra-high vacuum conditions. The strength of the field can be tuned with a relative precision of ≤2 × 10−5 and we find a passive temporal stability of our setup of better than 1.0 × 10−4 over the course of one hour. Slow drifts on time scales of a few minutes are actively stabilised by adjusting electric currents in the magnetic field coils. In this way, we observe coherence times of electronic superposition states of greater than six seconds using a first-order field insensitive (clock) transition. In a first application, we demonstrate sensing of magnetic fields with amplitudes of ≥0.2 μT oscillating at ≃\simeq ≃ ≃ 2π × 60 MHz. Our approach can be implemented in compact and robust applications with strict power and load requirements.