Radio-frequency (RF) atomic magnetometers (AMs) can be used in many applications, such as magnetic resonance imaging and nuclear quadrupole resonance. High-density AMs provide both superior sensitivity and large bandwidth. Previously, high-density potassium AMs were demonstrated, but these magnetometers have various disadvantages, such as high-temperature of operation and bulky design. We demonstrate a rubidium-87 RF AM with 5 fT/Hz1/2 sensitivity (3 fT Hz1/2 probe noise), which is comparable to that of the best potassium magnetometers. Our magnetometer also features a simple fiber-optic design, providing maximum flexibility for magnetic-field measurements.
Radio-frequency (RF) atomic magnetometers (AMs) can be used in many applications, such as magnetic resonance imaging and nuclear quadrupole resonance. High-density AMs provide both superior sensitivity and large bandwidth. Previously, high-density potassium AMs were demonstrated, but these magnetometers have various disadvantages, such as high-temperature of operation and bulky design. We demonstrate a rubidium-87 RF AM with 5 fT/Hz1/2 sensitivity (3 fT Hz1/2 probe noise), which is comparable to that of the best potassium magnetometers. Our magnetometer also features a simple fiber-optic design, providing maximum flexibility for magnetic-field measurements.
Advances in Optical and Photonic Devices 330 integration into microfabricated packages.Such packages will be not only inexpensive and easy to batch produce they will also have lower power consumption, light weight and unimpeded mobility (Knappe et al., 2006).Sensitive magnetic field measurements, for which AMs can be used, are important owing to many existing and potential applications.Magnetometers have been in wide use, for example, in geology, military, biomagnetism, space magnetic field measurements.AMs have been used because they are both relatively sensitive compared to conventional inexpensive magnetometers, such as fluxgates, and more convenient compared to SQUIDs that require cryogenic cooling.For a long time low-T c SQUIDs had been by far the most sensitive magnetometers at low frequency.However, this has changed with the demonstration with AMs of record 0.5 fT/Hz 1/2 sensitivity (Kominis et al., 2003).High-sensitivity AMs are based on spin-polarized atomic gases or vapors, and AM research is closely related to the atomic physics subfield dedicated to the investigation of spin interactions in such media.This subfield includes the research on optical pumping and related topics such as atomic clocks, masers, hyperpolarized gases, spin-based spectroscopy, and some others.A comprehensive review of optical pumping experiments before 1972 and theory of optical pumping and various relaxation mechanisms are given by William Happer (Happer, 1972).This theory, which still stands the test of time, includes the formulation of density matrix equations, which can be directly applied to the analysis of magnetic resonances of vapors on which atomic magnetometers are based.Atomic magnetometers find many applications as other magnetometers, but they are most useful when high sensitivity and non-cryogenic operation are required.For example, AMs have been developed for submarine detection, and many other military applications are possible on similar principles.Some applications of Rb-vapor or 3 He magnetometers in geophysics and space physics were mentioned as early as in 1961 by Bloom (Bloom, 1961) who did some pioneering work on the high-sensitivity measurements of magnetic fields and theory for the operation of atomic magnetometers.Theoretical analysis of early atomic magnetometers was also done by Dehmelt (Dehmelt, 1957) and by Bell and Bloom (Bell & Bloom, 1957).Although the history of atomic magnetometers is quite fascinating and they played an important role in applications where simpler and less expensive methods did not provide sufficient sensitivity, the atomic magnetometers of the past were much less sensitive than the modern ones.Most exciting results appeared only recently with the various demonstrations of performance of high-density AMs, which we would like to focus on in this chapter. How to referenceIn order to correctly reference this scholarly work, feel free to copy and paste the following: Igor Savukov (2010).Ultra-Sensitive Optical Atomic Magnetometers and Their Applications, Advances in Optical and Photonic Devices, Ki Young Kim (Ed.),
Optically pumped radio frequency (RF) atomic magnetometers have been shown to have an improved sensitivity over standard tuned coils for frequencies less than 50 MHz, making these RF magnetometers attractive for the detection of nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) and low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals. In an atomic magnetometer a linearly polarized probe beam measures, through Faraday rotation, the transverse atomic magnetization induced by the resonant RF signal. The resonance, or Larmor, frequency of the magnetometer is easily tuned with a small magnetic field. We construct an atomic magnetometer based on a potassium vapor cell with a measured sensitivity of 0.22 ± 0.02 fT/ √ Hz and a detection bandwidth of 334 ± 11 Hz when tuned to 423 kHz, giving a Q of over 1200. While high Q magnetometers are sensitive to weak magnetic fields, they are also sensitive to magnetic transients, such as those associated with the excitation pulses needed for magnetic resonance. The ringing created by such transients can obscure the signal of interest. This is particularly detrimental for magnetic resonance signals that decay faster than the transverse relaxation rate. We demonstrate that by feeding back part of the optical signal to orthogonal electromagnetic coils, this unwanted ringing can be quickly damped out leaving the magnetometer ready for the detection of the signal. This negative feedback as applied to the K spins is called spin-damping and can be used to relax the K atoms faster by more than two orders of magnitude. Using spin-damping we reduce the dead-time before data acquisition from 0.8 to 0.2 ms in the detection of NQR signals from ammonium nitrate, one of the so-called fertilizer bomb explosives with an NQR frequency of 423 kHz. Furthermore, we discover that spin-damping can not only be used to suppress signals, it can also be used to suppress noise. We show that it can be used to suppress both environmental noise and more fundamental quantum noise, such as photon shot and spin projection noise. The latter suppression opens the door for its use in quantum control to initialize spin systems before measurements. For phase-sensitive detection, as is often used in magnetic resonance, spin-damping suppresses signal and noise in such a way as to increase the sensitivity bandwidth of the magnetometer. We prove, both theoretically and experimentally, that it is possible to increase the magnetometer detection bandwidth by a factor of 3 or more without significant loss in sensitivity. Such gains in bandwidth for a high Q magnetometer translate into savings in detection time, particularly for substance detection where the frequency of the signal of interest may not be completely known.
We introduce a new ultra-sensitive adiabatic magnetometer that has a broad bandwidth and can operate in the presence of magnetic fields and gradients. It follows conceptually typical implementations of atomic magnetometers based on alkali-metal vapor cells and lasers for optical pumping and optical Faraday effect detection, while its unique feature is a measurement of an oscillating magnetic field along the probe beam direction at frequencies lower than the resonant frequency, proportional to a static magnetic field along the pump beam direction. The bandwidth of the adiabatic magnetometer scales as the strength of the field along the pump beam. From our theoretical studies it is expected that the adiabatic magnetometer can reach 1 fT sensitivity with a bandwidth of 10 kHz, which any type of atomic magnetometers cannot achieve. Among anticipated various applications of this adiabatic magnetometer are biomagnetic sensing, nuclear magnetic resonance detection, and alkali-metal density measurements. We experimentally conducted alkali-metal density measurements, as an example of applications.
Optically pumped atomic magnetometers are capable of measuring radio-frequency magnetic fields with high sensitivity, but their narrow bandwidth, of the order of 1 kHz, restricts their applications. Further, their full potential is often not realized, with noisy environments or quantum noise curtailing their sensitivity. This study presents a two-chamber atomic magnetometer, with independent control over the tuning field and pumping helicity in each chamber, which addresses both bandwidth and sensitivity limitations. It demonstrates a practical instance of bandwidth expansion, by simultaneous measurement of signals spaced more than 100 kHz apart, at frequencies corresponding to nuclear quadrupole resonance of ammonium nitrate and potassium chlorate, two materials commonly found in improvised explosive devices. It further demonstrates: the intrinsic reduction of common-mode noise, including environmental and probe light-shift noise, down to 2.4 fT/Hz, with the use of resonant, but oppositely pumped, atomic chambers; the reduction of photon shot noise down to 28 aT/Hz with the use of 44 probe passes through the two chambers; and the reduction of atom noise down to 34 aT/Hz, in agreement with prediction, using a large combined volume, 128 cm3, of 87Rb atoms. This work underlines the potential sensitivity of these quantum sensors, while exploring the technical limitation, namely the high pump power required, that stands as a barrier to that sensitivity. Further, it marks a significant step towards utilizing atomic magnetometers in applications demanding broader bandwidth or multiplexing, notably simultaneous measurements at far-spaced radio frequencies.
We propose and demonstrate a radio-frequency (rf) atomic magnetometer based on parametric resonances. Previously, most rf atomic magnetometers are based on magnetic resonances and their sensitivities are often limited by spin-exchange relaxation. Here, we introduce a novel scheme for an rf magnetometer where the rf magnetic field is measured by exciting the parametric resonances instead of magnetic resonances using parametric modulation fields. In this way, the spin-exchange relaxation is almost eliminated. Benefiting from the low spin relaxation rate, the parametric resonance scheme exhibits a narrower linewidth and stronger signal, which results in a higher sensitivity. With a 6×6×3 mm^{3} Rb atomic vapor cell, we developed an rf atomic magnetometer with a noise floor of 2 fT/Hz^{1/2}, which is about one order of magnitude higher than the sensitivity achieved in the magnetic-resonance-based scheme. The presented rf detection scheme holds promise in advancing rf atomic magnetometers and brings new insight into their various applications.
We describe an ultrasensitive atomic magnetometer based on optically pumped potassium atoms operating in a spin-exchange relaxation free regime. We demonstrate magnetic field sensitivity of 160 aT/Hz1/2 in a gradiometer arrangement with a measurement volume of 0.45 cm3 and energy resolution per unit bandwidth of 44ℏ. As an example of an application enabled by such a magnetometer, we describe measurements of weak remnant rock magnetization as a function of temperature with a sensitivity on the order of 10−10 emu/cm3/Hz1/2 and temperatures up to 420°C.