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IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS)

Improvement of polarization lifetime by using wafer-level micro spherical rubidium vapor cells for chip-scale atomic magnetometers

Yu Ji, Qi Gan, Lei Wu, Jintang Shang

Published Jan 1, 2016• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

The paper presents a novel design for chip-scale atomic magnetometers using a micro spherical rubidium vapor cell. By modeling and calculation, it was found that compared with the traditional planar rubidium vapor cell with approximately the same internal volume and buffer gas pressure, the micro spherical rubidium vapor cell was demonstrated with improved polarization lifetime and optical length. Experiments show that chip-scale atomic magnetometers based on the micro spherical cell has a significantly improved signal to noise(S/N) and sensitivity for both85Rb and87Rb. The wafer-level micro spherical rubidium vapor cells are also of interests for applications on chip-scale atomic clocks, gyroscope, vector microwave electrometries and other quantum sensors.

DOI
10.1109/memsys.2016.7421806

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IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC)•May 1, 2015•9 citations
The paper presents a novel design for chip-scale atomic magnetometers using a micro spherical rubidium vapor cell. By modeling and calculation, it was found that compared with the traditional planar rubidium vapor cell with approximately the same internal volume and buffer gas pressure, the micro spherical rubidium vapor cell was demonstrated with improved polarization lifetime and optical length. Experiments show that chip-scale atomic magnetometers based on the micro spherical cell has a significantly improved signal to noise(S/N) and sensitivity for both85Rb and87Rb. The wafer-level micro spherical rubidium vapor cells are also of interests for applications on chip-scale atomic clocks, gyroscope, vector microwave electrometries and other quantum sensors.
The designs of microfabricated alkali vapor cells play an important role when the atomic magnetometers are developing toward on-chip integration. This paper presents microfabricated spherical alkali vapor cells with improved sensitivity for chip-scale atomic magnetometers. A microfabricated spherical rubidium vapor cell and a traditional microfabricated planar rubidium vapor cell are designed for comparison, which are of the same volume and interconnected by a microchannel to acquire equal inner buffer gas pressure. In chip-scale spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) atomic magnetometers, the rubidium polarization lifetimes of three pairs of spherical and planar vapor cells at different buffer gas pressures of 0.35, 0.73, and 2.00 amg are measured, respectively. The sensitivity of SERF atomic magnetometers using the vapor cells at a 0.35-amg buffer gas pressure is also measured. The results show that the transverse polarization lifetime of the spherical vapor cell is 2.46, 1.44, and 1.05 times that of the planar one at 0.35-, 0.73-, and 2.00-amg buffer gas pressures, respectively. Combining the improved polarization lifetime and increased optical path length, chip-scale SERF atomic magnetometer using the microspherical vapor cell has the sensitivity of 60 fT/Hz1/2from 5 to 15 Hz, while that based on the planar one is demonstrated with the sensitivity of 400 fT/Hz1/2from 5 to 15 Hz.
This paper focuses on geometry influence of the micro alkali vapor cell on the sensitivity of the chip-scale atomic magnetometers. For the first time, by using micro spherical alkali vapor cells instead of traditional micro planar alkali vapor cells, we demonstrate a chip-scale atomic magnetometer with a ten-fold improvement in sensitivity experimentally. Besides, results also show that the micro spherical cell has improved anti-relaxation properties, especially at low buffer gas pressure. The geometry of the micro vapor cell might also be important for the performance of other chip-scale atomic devices including chip-scale atomic clocks, vector atomic microwave electrometers and atomic gyroscopes.
Micro Rubidium vapor cell has very important research values in many fields including atomic magnetometer, atomic clock, atomic gyroscope and so on. In this study, a new method to fabricate the micro Rubidium vapor cell has been investigated and uniform wafer-level micro Rubidium vapor cells, which could be used in atomic devices, have been prepared successfully by the proposed process. First of all, the fabrication process is introduced. Then the prepared uniform wafer-level micro Rubidium vapor cell has been characterized by Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) and Ultraviolet spectrophotometer. And the result demonstrates the existing of Rubidium and shows that the SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) of the micro Rubidium vapor cell is high, which suits for atomic devices as well as other applications. At last, its integration in a Chip-Scale atomic magnetometer is presented.
Compared with superconducting quantum interference devices, chip-scale atomic magnetometers using the wafer-level micro alkali vapor cells can be used more conveniently in the applications of geophysical mapping, health care and remote monitoring. Drastic wall collisions and decreased polarization lifetime are the main barriers for the performance of the chip-scale atomic magnetometers. In this study, OTS organic films coated on the inner surface of the micro vapor cells were used to suppress wall collisions and improve polarization lifetime of the alkali atoms in the micro cells. First of all, the fabrication process of wafer-level micro OTS coated vapor cells is introduced, the process is based on anodic bonding technology. Then the prepared wafer-level micro OTS coated vapor cells have been characterized by the water-contact angle test and measured in the micro-machined spin-exchange relaxation free(SERF) atomic magnetometers. Results show that the OTS coating is effective after anodic bonding from the water contact angle test. Results also indicate that the spin exchange relaxation free atomic magnetometer using the micro OTS-coated vapor cell can operate successfully.
Wearable biomagnetic field mapping with multiple-channel atomic magnetometers (AMs) requires low-cost microfabricated rubidium vapor cell arrays (RVCAs) of high performance. In this letter, an innovative microfabricated 3D RVCA with optimized polarization lifetime is proposed and demonstrated at a wafer level. To characterize the influence of vapor cell geometry on polarization lifetime, the 3D RVCA with four interconnected light-atom interaction chambers of uniform internal buffer gas pressure (0.7 amg) and various surface-to-volume ratios (17.61, 18.15, 20.95, and 27.14 cm-1) are prepared. For the first time, we utilize single-beam configuration to characterize microfabricated 3D RVCA by extrapolating to vanishing light intensity. We measure the intrinsic polarization lifetime of the four chambers within an 3D RVCA. The results indicate that decreasing the surface-to-volume ratio of the chamber in 3D RVCA at 413 K substantially improves the polarization lifetime by 129.3%. Measurements conducted across varying temperature all demonstrate that reductions in surface-to-volume ratios positively influence the enhancement of the polarization lifetime. The proposed RVCA offers critical insights for low-cost and high-performance chip-scale AM array based on microfabricated 3D atomic vapor cells.
High sensitive atomic magnetometers play an important role in many fields including geophysical mapping, space science, nuclear magnetic resonance, health care and perimeter and remote monitoring. In this study, a novel method to fabricate the micro spherical Rubidium vapor cell has been investigated and the integration of micro spherical rubidium vapor cell in 3-axis atomic magnetometer has been demonstrated successfully. First of all, a fabrication process for micro spherical alkali vapor cells is introduced. Then the prepared uniform wafer-level micro spherical rubidium vapor cell has been characterized by Ultraviolet spectrophotometer as well as a laser frequency locking system. At last, 3-axis atomic magnetometer based on the micro spherical rubidium vapor cell has been demonstrated. Results show that micro spherical rubidium vapor cell has been fabricated successfully. Results also indicate that a 3-axis atomic magnetometer based on the micro spherical rubidium vapor cell could measure magnetic fields along three directions (BX, BYand BZ).