A single-beam atomic magnetometer being operated near zero-field and measuring three-axis fields simultaneously is demonstrated. We produce a rotating field on the x-0-y plane with the frequency of 90 Hz and a modulation field in the z axis at 130 Hz. The rotating field enables a nonzero z axis output when the transverse fields are zeroed using feedback systems. Based on the phase difference of π/2, x and y axes fields can be measured using one lock-in amplifier. Magnetic field sensitivities of 300 fT/Hz1∕2 in x and y axes and 3 pT/Hz1∕2 in the z axis are achieved.
A single-beam atomic magnetometer being operated near zero-field and measuring three-axis fields simultaneously is demonstrated. We produce a rotating field on the x-0-y plane with the frequency of 90 Hz and a modulation field in the z axis at 130 Hz. The rotating field enables a nonzero z axis output when the transverse fields are zeroed using feedback systems. Based on the phase difference of π/2, x and y axes fields can be measured using one lock-in amplifier. Magnetic field sensitivities of 300 fT/Hz1∕2 in x and y axes and 3 pT/Hz1∕2 in the z axis are achieved.
We demonstrate a three-axis atomic magnetometer with one intensity-modulated pump beam and one orthogonal probe beam. The main field component is measured using the resonance of the pumping light, while the transverse field components are measured simultaneously using the optical rotation of the probe beam modulated by the spin precession. It is an all-optical magnetometer without using any modulation field or radio frequency field. Magnetic field sensitivity of 0.8 pT/Hz1∕2 is achieved under a bias field of 2 μT.
Abstract We display a single-beam triaxial spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) atomic magnetometer by utilizing two orthogonal transverse modulation fields perpendicular to the light. The magnetic field’s three-axis vector components can be extracted simultaneously and independently from the transmitted light by lock-in amplifiers with reference to the different demodulated frequencies. We find that the residual magnetic field is a significant factor that could affect triaxial coupling, and specially the influence of the z -axis remanence on xy -axis coupling is studied in detail. Under the optimal parameters, the three-axis sensitivities are 20 fT Hz − 1 / 2 in the x - and y - axis, and 230 fT Hz − 1 / 2 in the z -axis. Meanwhile, the three-axis bandwidths are 110 Hz, 138 Hz and 211 Hz in the x -, y - and z -axis, respectively. The proposed single-beam triaxial SERF atomic magnetometer could be used to construct a compact and low-cost atomic sensor that is particularly suitable for the vector measurement of the biomagnetic such as magnetoencephalography and magnetocardiography.
Three-axis atomic magnetometers have great advantages for interpreting information conveyed by magnetic fields. Here, we demonstrate a compact construction of a three-axis vector atomic magnetometer. The magnetometer is operated with a single laser beam and with a specially designed triangular 87Rb vapor cell (side length is 5 mm). The ability of three-axis measurement is realized by reflecting the light beam in the cell chamber under high pressure, so that the atoms before and after reflection are polarized along two different directions. It achieves a sensitivity of 40 fT/Hz in x-axis, 20 fT/Hz in y-axis, and 30 fT/Hz in z-axis under spin-exchange relaxation-free regime. The crosstalk effect between different axes is proven to be little in this configuration. The sensor configuration here is expected to form further values, especially for vector biomagnetism measurement, clinical diagnosis, and field source reconstruction.
In this paper, we propose a three-axis atomic magnetometer (AM), in which one light beam is divided into two orthogonal spatially separated pump beams by a lateral displacement polarized beam splitter and reflector mirrors; this scheme suppresses the three-axis crosstalk caused by the interaction between the two beams and atoms in the cell. When the AM operates in the direct-current (DC) mode, the three-axis crosstalk is significant. To solve this problem, three modulation fields with the same amplitudes, frequencies, and different phases are applied, which allow the AM operated in modulation mode to perform a highly sensitive synchronous and independent measurement of the three-axis magnetic field with low crosstalk. The experimental results showed that the three-axis crosstalk was less than 2%. In the modulation mode, the sensitivities were 22, 23, and 26 fT/Hz1/2 on the x-, y-, and z-axes, respectively. The 3-dB bandwidths of the three axes were 126, 124, and 112 Hz. In addition, we demonstrated a three-axis in-situ magnetic compensation method with a magnetic compensation accuracy of the pT level in the DC mode. The proposed triaxial AM can be easily miniaturised and used in biomedical applications, such as in magnetocardiography and magnetoencephalography.
We demonstrate a single-beam atomic magnetometer (AM) capable of measuring a three-axis magnetic field with high-sensitivity, achieved by applying a small DC offset field and a high frequency modulation field. To satisfy the miniaturization demand of AMs, an elliptically polarized light detuned by 50 GHz from the resonance transition center is employed. The circularly polarized component is used to polarize the alkali-metal atoms, while the linearly polarized light is used to detect the dynamics of the polarized spin under a magnetic field. Based on theoretical analysis, parameters that significantly affect the performance are optimized, and a sensitivity of 20 fT/Hz 1/2 in x -axis, 25 fT/Hz 1/2 in y -axis, 30 fT/Hz 1/2 in z -axis is achieved with a miniature 4 × 4 × 4 mm 87 Rb vapor cell. Moreover, we also verify that the operation principle of AMs can be used to null background magnetic fields in-situ with isotropic compensation resolution of 6.7 pT, which provides an effectively precise method for zeroing ambient magnetic field. The high-sensitivity operating of an elliptically-polarized-laser-based magnetometer provides prospective futures for constructing a compact, low-cost AM, which is particularly applicable for non-invasive bio-magnetic imaging such as array-based magnetoencephalography (MEG) and magnetocardiography (MCG).
Abstract In this paper, we demonstrate a three-axis atomic magnetometer based on parametric oscillations, which can measure the three magnetic field components simultaneously and independently. A circularly polarized pump beam is applied to create the spin polarization, and another linearly polarized probe beam is used to detect the dynamics of the polarized spin under a magnetic field. With a closed-loop system to keep the magnetic field in resonance with the atoms, three components of magnetic field are measured by their feedback signals. We achieve a magnetometer sensitivity of 6 pT ( ) −1 , 25 pT ( ) −1 , and 60 pT ( ) −1 along three axes in the frequency range from 100 Hz to 1 kHz with a bandwidth better than 1 kHz under an unshielded environment. Furthermore, this magnetometer is free of optical modulation, which reduces the complexity of experimental setups. The methods we present here provide a prototype all-electrical three-axis atomic magnetometer.