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Physical Review A

Compensation of ac Stark shifts in optical magnetometry

Irina V. Novikova, Andrey B. Matsko, Vladimir L Velichansky, Marlan O. Scully, George R. Welch

Published May 7, 2001• 47 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The ac Stark shift of the resonance frequency of the nonlinear magneto-optic effect (NMOE) results in a fundamental broadening of this resonance which limits the precision of optical magnetometry based on NMOE. We have studied the dependence of the ac Stark shift versus frequency of the probing laser for the ${D}_{1}$ and ${D}_{2}$ lines of ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb},$ and have shown that there exists a frequency where the shifts from different hyperfine components of the upper level cancel each other. This holds promise for an in-principle increase in the sensitivity of optical magnetometers. The influence of buffer gas on Faraday rotation and ac Stark shifts is also considered.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.63.063802

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Письма в Журнал экспериментальной и теоретической физики•Apr 15, 2023•1 citation
The ac Stark shift of the resonance frequency of the nonlinear magneto-optic effect (NMOE) results in a fundamental broadening of this resonance which limits the precision of optical magnetometry based on NMOE. We have studied the dependence of the ac Stark shift versus frequency of the probing laser for the D1{D}_{1}D1​ and D2{D}_{2}D2​ lines of 87Rb,{}^{87}\mathrm{Rb},87Rb, and have shown that there exists a frequency where the shifts from different hyperfine components of the upper level cancel each other. This holds promise for an in-principle increase in the sensitivity of optical magnetometers. The influence of buffer gas on Faraday rotation and ac Stark shifts is also considered.
We analyze systematic (classical) and fundamental (quantum) limitations of the sensitivity of optical magnetometers resulting from ac Stark shifts. We show that in contrast to absorption-based techniques, the signal reduction associated with classical broadening can be compensated in magnetometers based on phase measurements using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). However due to ac Stark--associated quantum noise the signal-to-noise ratio of EIT-based magnetometers attains a maximum value at a certain laser intensity. This value is independent on the quantum statistics of the light and defines a standard quantum limit of sensitivity. We demonstrate that an EIT-based optical magnetometer in Faraday configuration is the best candidate to achieve the highest sensitivity of magnetic-field detection and give a detailed analysis of such a device.
The ac Stark shift (also known as the ``light shift'') is one of the most important physical processes that arises in precision spectroscopy, affecting the basic understanding of field-matter interactions, measurements of fundamental constants, and even the atomic clocks onboard GPS satellites. Although the theory of the ac Stark shift was fully developed by the 1960s and 1970s, precision tests of theory have, for the most part, been few. Taking advantage of recent developments in atomic clock technology, specifically the pulsed approach to atomic signal generation, which allows frequency measurements with a resolution of $\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}15}$, we demonstrate a methodology for measuring the ac Stark shift. Here, we report results from a precision examination of the ac Stark shift in a vapor phase system, examining the resonant frequency of the 87Rb^{87}\text{Rb}87Rb 0-0 hyperfine transition for a perturbing laser tuned over a broad optical frequency range (18 GHz) around the D1{D}_{1}D1​ absorption resonance. Over the full frequency range the agreement between semiclassical theory and experiment is very good (better than $5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$), and in our experiments we test both the frequency dependence of the scalar and tensor components of the light shift.
Nonlinear resonances in alkali metal vapor, which are detected by the magneto-optical rotation of the linear polarization of light, are actively used in quantum magnetometry to fabricate atomic magnetometers. The magneto-optical rotation in most such sensors is due to magnetic birefringence, and rotation angles usually do not exceed tens of milliradians. In this work, an experiment where magneto-optical resonances of linear polarization rotation of a probe wave are due to strong dichroism induced in a medium by a counterpropagating pump wave has been proposed. Both waves are in resonance with the Fg = 2 → Fe = 1 optical transition in the 87Rb D1 line (λ ≈ 795 nm). Experiments have been carried out with a 2-cm-long cylindrical cell filled with a buffer gas, and the maximum rotation angle is ≈390 mrad (22°) at a width of resonance of about 300 nT. The results show that the configuration proposed for the observation of magneto-optical rotation is promising for the fabrication of compact high-sensitivity atomic magnetometers.
Nonlinear resonances in alkali metal vapor, which are detected by the magneto-optical rotation of the linear polarization of light, are actively used in quantum magnetometry to fabricate atomic magnetometers. The magneto-optical rotation in most such sensors is due to magnetic birefringence, and rotation angles usually do not exceed tens of milliradians. In this work, an experiment where magneto-optical resonances of linear polarization rotation of a probe wave are due to strong dichroism induced in a medium by a counterpropagating pump wave has been proposed. Both waves are in resonance with the Fg = 2 → Fe = 1 optical transition in the 87Rb D1 line (λ ≈ 795 nm). Experiments have been carried out with a 2-cm-long cylindrical cell filled with a buffer gas, and the maximum rotation angle is ≈390 mrad (22°) at a width of resonance of about 300 nT. The results show that the configuration proposed for the observation of magneto-optical rotation is promising for the fabrication of compact high-sensitivity atomic magnetometers.