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Review of Scientific Instruments

Self-oscillating rubidium magnetometer using nonlinear magneto-optical rotation

Peter D. D. Schwindt, Leo W. Hollberg, John E. Kitching

Published Dec 1, 2005• 57 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The detection of nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (NMOR) of polarized light through alkali atomic vapor is a highly sensitive technique for measuring magnetic fields. We demonstrate that when using frequency modulated light to excite the NMOR resonance, it is possible to cause the system to self-oscillate. The NMOR signal is not a simple replica of the sine wave modulation of the light, but rather contains many higher harmonics of the modulation frequency, and we implement two ways of processing the signal to recover the fundamental modulation frequency in the feedback loop and induce self-oscillation. Self-oscillation simplifies and reduces the power consumption of the electronics required to operate a magnetometer, making the NMOR technique attractive for commercialized magnetic sensors.

DOI
10.1063/1.2136885

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The detection of nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (NMOR) of polarized light through alkali atomic vapor is a highly sensitive technique for measuring magnetic fields. We demonstrate that when using frequency modulated light to excite the NMOR resonance, it is possible to cause the system to self-oscillate. The NMOR signal is not a simple replica of the sine wave modulation of the light, but rather contains many higher harmonics of the modulation frequency, and we implement two ways of processing the signal to recover the fundamental modulation frequency in the feedback loop and induce self-oscillation. Self-oscillation simplifies and reduces the power consumption of the electronics required to operate a magnetometer, making the NMOR technique attractive for commercialized magnetic sensors.
A self-oscillating magnetometer based on nonlinear magneto-optical rotation using amplitude-modulated pump light and unmodulated probe light (AM-NMOR) in 87Rb has been constructed and tested towards a goal of airborne detection of magnetic anomalies. In AM-NMOR, stroboscopic optical pumping via amplitude modulation of the pump beam creates alignment of the ground electronic state of the rubidium atoms. The Larmor precession causes an ac rotation of the polarization of a separate probe beam; the polarization rotation frequency provides a measure of the magnetic field. An anti-relaxation coating on the walls of the atomic vapor cell results in a long lifetime of 56 ms for the alignment, which enables precise measurement of the precession frequency. Light is delivered to the magnetometer by polarization-maintaining optical fibers. Tests of the sensitivity include directly measuring the beat frequency between the magnetometer and a commercial instrument and measurements of Earth's field under magnetically quiet conditions, indicating a sensitivity of at least 5 pT/νHz. Rotating the sensor indicates a heading error of less than 1 nT, limited in part by residual magnetism of the sensor.
Using the techniques of microelectromechanical systems, we are developing chip-scale atomic sensors based on laser excitation of alkali atoms. Recently, we demonstrated a magnetometer physics package based on coherent population trapping that had a sensitivity of 50 pT/Hzfrac12at 10 Hz, had a volume of 12 mm3, and used 195 mW of power as presented by Schwindt et al. (2004). To improve the sensitivity and reduce the power consumption of the magnetometer, we are evaluating other methods of interrogating the atoms for use in microfabricated devices. One of these methods uses frequency modulated nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (FM NMOR). We demonstrate that an FM NMOR magnetometer can be made to self-oscillate, offering simple construction and low power consumption
Larmor precession of laser-polarized atoms contained in antirelaxation-coated cells, detected via nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (NMOR), is a promising technique for a new generation of ultrasensitive atomic magnetometers. For magnetic fields directed along the light propagation direction, resonances in NMOR appear when linearly polarized light is frequency or amplitude modulated at twice the Larmor frequency. Because the frequency of these resonances depends on the magnitude but not the direction of the field, they are useful for scalar magnetometry. Additional NMOR resonances at the Larmor frequency appear when the magnetic field is tilted away from the light propagation direction in the plane defined by the light propagation and polarization vectors. These resonances, studied both experimentally and with a density matrix calculation in the present work, offer a convenient method of achieving additional information about a direction of the magnetic field.
An atomic magnetometer detects atomic responses to the magnetic field, and its sensitivity is ultimately limited by quantum noise fluctuations. For magnetometers based on nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (NMOR), the possible concurrent generation of light squeezing due to polarization self-rotation complicates the optimization for magnetometer sensitivity. Here, we study NMOR magnetometers with frequency-modulated light in a paraffin coated 87Rb vapor cell in the low and high power regimes corresponding to situations with and without light squeezing, respectively, with detection observables being different Stokes components reflecting the magnetic-field-induced atomic circular dichroism or birefringence. We found that the overall best sensitivity is achieved in the low power regime when there is no light squeezing and for circular dichroism measurement. We provide a general insight on parameter optimization and the choice of detection observables, from the delicate trade-off between the atomic responses and the noises including the technical and quantum optical noises. Our results could have practical significance in optical atomic magnetometry.
We report on investigations of nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (NMOR) in rubidium vapor subjected to a modulated magnetic field and continuous-wave (cw) laser-light illumination. By superimposing modulation and a static (dc) magnetic field, we demonstrate the appearance of resonances at both small and large (compared to the ground-state relaxation rate) values of the static field. Since in conventional NMOR there is no rotation at high fields, this suggests an existence of an alternative mechanism generating anisotropy in the considered case, which we identify as parametric resonance. The experiments are performed using light of small ellipticity, and rotation signals are significantly enhanced by combining atom-induced polarization rotation with a passive rotation induced with a wave plate. All the observations are supported with theoretical simulations. The density-matrix formalism and angular-momentum probability surfaces are used to provide an intuitive explanation of the observed signals.