Sub-picotesla Scalar Atomic Magnetometer with a Microfabricated Vapor Cell

Vishal Shah, Svenja A. Knappe, Peter D. D. Schwindt +1 more

Dominic Hunter, S. Piccolomo, Jonathan D. Pritchard +3 more

Microfabricated atomic magnetometers are important for fundamental research and numerous applications, including geophysical surveying and biological imaging, as they provide a sensitive, accurate, and portable alternative to standard magnetic sensing. The strong scalability and all-optical nature of the free-induction-decay (FID) magnetometer also benefit applications requiring sensor networks. This study shows the advantages of applying synchronous modulation and differential polarimetric detection in an FID setting, for measuring picotesla-level fields using a miniaturized Cs vapor cell.

Peter D. D. Schwindt, Murat Okandan, Cort Johnson

Rui Zhang, T. Dyer, N. L. Brockie +2 more

We demonstrated a scalar atomic magnetometer using a microfabricated Cs vapor cell. The atomic spin precession is driven by an amplitude-modulated circularly-polarized pump laser resonant on the D1 transition of Cs atoms and detected by an off-resonant linearly-polarized probe laser using a balanced polarimeter setup. Under a magnetic field with amplitude in the Earth's magnetic field range, the magnetometer in the gradiometer mode can reach sensitivities below 150fT/√Hz, which shows that the magnetometer by itself can achieve sub-100fT/√Hz sensitivities. In addition to its high sensitivity, the magnetometer has a bandwidth close to 1 kHz due to the broad magnetic resonance inside the small vapor cell. Our experiment suggests the feasibility of a portable low-power and high-performance magnetometer which can be operated in the Earth's magnetic field. Such a device will greatly reduce the restrictions on the operating environment and expand the range of applications for atomic magnetometers, such as detection of nuclear magnetic resonance in low magnetic fields

Rui Zhang, Terry Dyer, Nathan Brockie +2 more

We demonstrated a scalar atomic magnetometer using a microfabricated Cs vapor cell. The atomic spin precession is driven by an amplitude-modulated circularly-polarized pump laser resonant on the D1 transition of Cs atoms and detected by an off-resonant linearly-polarized probe laser using a balanced polarimeter setup. Under a magnetic field with amplitude in the Earth's magnetic field range, the magnetometer in the gradiometer mode can reach sensitivities below 150fT/Hz, which shows that the magnetometer by itself can achieve sub-100fT/Hz sensitivities. In addition to its high sensitivity, the magnetometer has a bandwidth close to 1 kHz due to the broad magnetic resonance inside the small vapor cell. Our experiment suggests the feasibility of a portable low-power and high-performance magnetometer which can be operated in the Earth's magnetic field. Such a device will greatly reduce the restrictions on the operating environment and expand the range of applications for atomic magnetometers, such as detection of nuclear magnetic resonance in low magnetic fields.

Qi Li, Jianan Qin, Yuejin Jiang +2 more