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Vector AC Stark shift in 133Cs atomic magnetometers with antirelaraxion coated cells

E. Zhivun

Published Jan 1, 2016• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

The main focus of this dissertation is investigation of vector AC Stark shifts (light shifts) in evacuated 133Cs paraffin-coated cells. Although light shifts in alkali atoms have been investigated since 1960s, the effect of laser-induced vector light shifts (VLS) in paraffin-coated cells is little explored in literature. The works considering light shift effects primarily focus on transitions relevant for atomic clocks, or magnetometers using buffer gas cells, or magnetometers using broad-spectrum alkali metal lamps. This work, on the other hand, focuses on light shifts in a setup shared by finite-field optical magnetometers that use paraffin-coated sensor cells, as well as on their impact on sensitivity and accuracy of these devices.Along with describing the light shifts, this work presents several techniques that take advantage of the VLS to improve atomic magnetometers as a tool. The proposed techniques eliminate the need for oscillating radio-frequency magnetic fields and replace them with well contained laser beams. This can benefit applications where non-magnetic sensors are needed and stray fields are highly undesirable, such as the search for a permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron.This dissertation includes two such projects, the all-optical vector magnetometer and the rf magnetometer driven by a fictitious magnetic field. In the first project a finite-field optical magnetometer, which is normally a scalar sensor, is augmented with two power-modulated orthogonal laser beams that provide the directional sensitivity. The sensor exhibits a demonstrated rms noise floor of 50 fT/√Hz in measurement of the field magnitude and 0.5 mrad/√Hz in the field direction. Elimination of technical noise would improve these sensitivities to 12 fT/√Hz and 5 μrad/√Hz, respectively. In the second project, the atomic precession in a scalar 133Cs magnetometer is driven by an effective oscillating magnetic field provided by the AC Stark shift of an intensity-modulated laser beam. The demonstrated sensitivity of this magnetometer is 40 fT/√Hz rms, which is equivalent to the conventional coil-driven scalar magnetometer we built sharing the same setup.The Appendix includes documentation on the custom-built polarimeter used in the experiments and the frequency response of the magnetic sensor head.

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•Nov 4, 2018•0 citations
The main focus of this dissertation is investigation of vector AC Stark shifts (light shifts) in evacuated 133Cs paraffin-coated cells. Although light shifts in alkali atoms have been investigated since 1960s, the effect of laser-induced vector light shifts (VLS) in paraffin-coated cells is little explored in literature. The works considering light shift effects primarily focus on transitions relevant for atomic clocks, or magnetometers using buffer gas cells, or magnetometers using broad-spectrum alkali metal lamps. This work, on the other hand, focuses on light shifts in a setup shared by finite-field optical magnetometers that use paraffin-coated sensor cells, as well as on their impact on sensitivity and accuracy of these devices.Along with describing the light shifts, this work presents several techniques that take advantage of the VLS to improve atomic magnetometers as a tool. The proposed techniques eliminate the need for oscillating radio-frequency magnetic fields and replace them with well contained laser beams. This can benefit applications where non-magnetic sensors are needed and stray fields are highly undesirable, such as the search for a permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron.This dissertation includes two such projects, the all-optical vector magnetometer and the rf magnetometer driven by a fictitious magnetic field. In the first project a finite-field optical magnetometer, which is normally a scalar sensor, is augmented with two power-modulated orthogonal laser beams that provide the directional sensitivity. The sensor exhibits a demonstrated rms noise floor of 50 fT/√Hz in measurement of the field magnitude and 0.5 mrad/√Hz in the field direction. Elimination of technical noise would improve these sensitivities to 12 fT/√Hz and 5 μrad/√Hz, respectively. In the second project, the atomic precession in a scalar 133Cs magnetometer is driven by an effective oscillating magnetic field provided by the AC Stark shift of an intensity-modulated laser beam. The demonstrated sensitivity of this magnetometer is 40 fT/√Hz rms, which is equivalent to the conventional coil-driven scalar magnetometer we built sharing the same setup.The Appendix includes documentation on the custom-built polarimeter used in the experiments and the frequency response of the magnetic sensor head.
We demonstrate an all-optical magnetometer capable of measuring the magnitude and direction of a magnetic field using nonlinear magneto-optical rotation in a cesium vapor. Vector capability is added by effective modulation of the field along orthogonal axes and subsequent demodulation of the magnetic-resonance frequency. This modulation is provided by the AC Stark shift induced by circularly polarized laser beams. The sensor exhibits a demonstrated rms noise floor of 50 fT/ √ Hz in measurement of the field magnitude and 0.5 mrad/ √ Hz in the field direction; elimination of technical noise would improve these sensitivities to 12 fT/ √ Hz and 5 μrad/ √ Hz, respectively. Applications for a precise all-optical vector magnetometer would include magnetically sensitive fundamental physics experiments, such as the search for a permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron.
We demonstrate an all-optical magnetometer capable of measuring the magnitude and direction of a magnetic field using nonlinear magneto-optical rotation in cesium vapor. Vector capability is added by effective modulation of the field along orthogonal axes and subsequent demodulation of the magnetic-resonance frequency. This modulation is provided by the ac Stark shift induced by circularly polarized laser beams. The sensor exhibits a demonstrated rms noise floor of $\ensuremath{\sim}65\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{fT}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ in measurement of the field magnitude and 0.5  mrad/Hz0.5\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{mrad}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}0.5  mrad/Hz​ in the field direction; elimination of technical noise would improve these sensitivities to 12  fT/Hz12\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{fT}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}12  fT/Hz​ and $10\text{ }\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{rad}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$, respectively. Applications for this all-optical vector magnetometer would include magnetically sensitive fundamental physics experiments, such as the search for a permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron.
Atomic spin polarization of alkali atoms in the ground-state can survive thousands of collisions with paraffin-coated cell walls. The resulting long spin-relaxation times achieved in evacuated, paraffin-coated cells enable precise measurement of atomic spin precession and energy shifts of ground-state Zeeman sublevels. In the present work, nonlinear magneto-optical rotation with frequency-modulated light (FM NMOR) is used to measure magnetic field-induced spin precession for rubidium atoms contained in a paraffin-coated cell. The magnetometric sensitivity of FM NMOR for the rubidium D2 line is studied as a function of light power, detuning, frequency-modulation amplitude, and rubidium vapor density. For a 5-cm-diameter cell at temperature T≈35 °C, the optimal shot-noise-projected magnetometric sensitivity is found to be 2×10−11 G/Hz (corresponding to a sensitivity to spin precession frequency of ≈10 μHz/Hz or a sensitivity to Zeeman sublevel shifts of ≈4×10−20 eV/Hz).
We demonstrate an all-optical 133Cs scalar magnetometer, operating in nonzero magnetic field, in which the magnetic resonance is driven by an effective oscillating magnetic field provided by the AC Stark shift of an intensity-modulated laser beam. We achieve a projected shot-noise-limited sensitivity of 1.7fT/Hz and measure a technical noise floor of 40fT/Hz. These results are essentially identical to a coil-driven scalar magnetometer using the same setup. This all-optical scheme offers advantages over traditional coil-driven magnetometers for use in arrays and in magnetically sensitive fundamental physics experiments, e.g., searches for a permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron.
Alkali-metal-vapor magnetometers, using coherent precession of polarized atomic spins for magnetic-field measurement, have become one of the most sensitive magnetic-field detectors. Their application areas range from practical uses such as NMR signal detection to fundamental physics research such as searches for permanent electric dipole moments. One of the main noise sources of atomic magnetometers comes from the light shift that depends on the frequency of the pump laser. In this work, we theoretically study the light shift, taking into account the relaxation due to the optical pumping and the collision between alkali-metal atoms and between alkali-metal atoms and the buffer gas. Starting from a full master equation containing both the ground and excited states, we adiabatically eliminate the excited states and obtain an effective master equation in the ground-state subspace that shows an intuitive picture and dramatically accelerates the numerical simulation. Solving this effective master equation, we find that in the light-narrowing regime, where the linewidth is reduced while the coherent precession signal is enhanced, the frequency dependence of the light shift is largely reduced, which agrees with experimental observations in cesium magnetometers. Since this effective master equation is general and is easily solved, it can be applied to an extensive parameter regime, and also to study other physical problems in alkali-metal-vapor magnetometers, such as heading errors.
Alkali-metal-vapor magnetometers, using coherent precession of polarized atomic spins for magnetic field measurement, have become one of the most sensitive magnetic field detectors. Their application areas range from practical uses such as detections of NMR signals to fundamental physics research such as searches for permanent electric dipole moments. One of the main noise sources of atomic magnetometers comes from the light shift that depends on the frequency of the pump laser. In this work, we theoretically study the light shift, taking into account the relaxation due to the optical pumping and the collision between alkali atoms and between alkali atoms and the buffer gas. Starting from a full master equation containing both the ground and excited states, we adiabatically eliminate the excited states and obtain an effective master equation in the ground-state subspace that shows an intuitive picture and dramatically accelerates the numerical simulation. Solving this effective master equation, we find that in the light-narrowing regime, where the line width is reduced while the coherent precession signal is enhanced, the frequency-dependence of the light shift is largely reduced, which agrees with experimental observations in cesium magnetometers. Since this effective master equation is general and is easily solved, it can be applied to an extensive parameter regime, and also to study other physical problems in alkali-metal-vapor magnetometers, such as heading errors.