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IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC)

Integration of the SERF Magnetometer and the Mz Magnetometer Using Micro-Fabricated Alkali Vapor Cell

Jin Zhang, Jintang Shang, Guoliang Li, Lin Lu, Zhihua Pan, Yu Ji, Ching‐Ping Wong

Published May 1, 2018• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

With the continuous improvement of weak magnetic detection technology, there has been a growing trend towards more compact and integrated magnetometer. The SERF magnetometer and the Mz magnetometer have many common features in operation. Therefore, we design a new kind of miniaturized atomic sensors to integrate the SERF magnetometer and the Mz magnetometer based on micro-fabricated alkali vapor cell. The sensor structure consists of alkali vapor cell, three-axis magnetic field coils, heating module and optical module. This small size sensor has the potential to achieve a portable multi-function device.

DOI
10.1109/ectc.2018.00301

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With the continuous improvement of weak magnetic detection technology, there has been a growing trend towards more compact and integrated magnetometer. The SERF magnetometer and the Mz magnetometer have many common features in operation. Therefore, we design a new kind of miniaturized atomic sensors to integrate the SERF magnetometer and the Mz magnetometer based on micro-fabricated alkali vapor cell. The sensor structure consists of alkali vapor cell, three-axis magnetic field coils, heating module and optical module. This small size sensor has the potential to achieve a portable multi-function device.
Wafer-level integration of micro heater on an alkali vapor cell for chip-scale SERF magnetometers is presented. In order to obtain a suitable resistivity, polysilicon and aluminum are mixed as the target material. Magnetron sputtering is adopted to fabricate the heater on the surface of the alkali vapor cell. Various voltages are applied to the heater, of which the temperatures are measured by thermal sensitive sensors. Spin exchange relaxation free (SERF) atomic magnetometer with the heater integrated on the alkali vapor cell is characterized. Results show that the micro heater is successfully integrated on the alkali vapor cell. With the integrated heater, the rubidium vapor cell is heated up to 120°C by a 445kHz AC current. The sensitivity of the SERF magnetometer is 6.3pT/Hz1/2. Results also indicate that it provides an effective and low-cost solution for the miniaturization of atomic magnetometers.
This paper introduces measurement of weak magnetic field using a novel design of chip-scale Spin Exchange Relaxation Free (SERF) atomic magnetometer based on a microfabricated Rubidium (Rb) vapor cell. The sensor, which integrates a micro-fabricated Rb vapor cell, a heater and related components, is fabricated by stacking printed circuit boards (PCB) and Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) process technology. During the experiments, the noise of the measurement using the atomic magnetometer was obtained. In addition, a test of the simulated magnetic field was performed in a shielding cylinder, and the signal of the simulated magnetic field about 100 pT at 1.2 Hz was measured. The signal is processed by the software using a notch filter to suppress the Direct Current (DC) noise and 50Hz noise. This paper provides a novel micro-fabricated device for detecting weak magnetic field.
Micro-fabricated optical magnetometers as the most sensitive magnetic field sensors play a significant role in a variety of areas ranging from health care and nuclear magnetic resonance to fundamental atomic physics research and remote monitoring. Optoelectronic integration is the main barrier for the performance of the micro-fabricated optical magnetometer. In this study, by using micro alkali vapor cell with spherical structure, a novel optoelectronic integration approach with improved sensitivity for micro-fabricated optical magnetometers has been investigated. Firstly, the manufacturing process of the micro alkali vapor cell with spherical structure is presented. Secondly, the optical path length and the buffer gas pressure of the prepared micro alkali cell have been characterized through one optical frequency-locking system. In the end, optoelectronic integration for the micro-fabricated optical magnetometers has been investigated in this study. Results indicate that the micro alkali cell with spherical structure has a greatly improved optical path length and owns the nitrogen buffer gas at the pressure of 2.25amg. Results also show that by using the micro alkali vapor cell with spherical structure, the novel optoelectronic integration approach has greatly improved signal to noise ratio(S/N) and sensitivity for the micro-fabricated optical magnetometers.
The importance of the atomic magnetometer hasalready been widely recognized and it is an emergency to come up with portable atomic magnetometers with highperformance. The scalar magnetometer with its uniqueproperty of merely sensitive to the magnitude but relativelyinsensitive to the direction of the ambient magnetic field. This work presents a novel solution which combines two types of scalar atomic magnetometers, namely the MX magnetometer and the MZ magnetometer. A micro-fabricated rubidium vapor cell, which is the key component in an atomic magnetometer, was integrated in the prototype to enable the reduction of its volume. With a brief review of the theoretical model of scalar atomic magnetometers, the principle is demonstrated. Both thescheme of the magnetometer and the fabrication process of the vapor cell are illustrated. The results of the dispersive signals were measured and are presented. The magnetic field noise spectrum of both the MX and MZ magnetometers are also presented in this work, which shows the sensitivities are in the order of 100pT/Hz1/2.
High sensitive SERF(spin-exchange-relaxation-free) atomic magnetometers play an important role in many fields including geophysical mapping, space science, nuclear magnetic resonance, health care and perimeter and remote monitoring. This paper presents a novel approach for the system integration of a SERF atomic magnetometer. First of all, Rb vapor cell integrated with micro heater and Helmholtz coils was selected as physic part of the system and the vapor cell was characterized by pressure broadening effect to analyze nitrogen buffer gas pressure in the vapor cell. Then optical module including laser, micro-lens to collimate light beam emitting from the laser, quarter-wave plate to circularly polarize laser beam was taken as optical pumping and probing source simultaneously, and the interaction of circularly polarized laser beam with rubidium atoms was detected by silicon PIN photo-detectors. At last, Laser module, physics part of the system and silicon PIN photo-detector were integrated on a glass wafer substrate benefiting from the characteristics of non-magnetic material and good flatness, based on the integrated SERF atomic magnetometer, weak magnetic field could be measured. Results demonstrate that the SERF atomic magnetometer is integrated successfully and could be used for the detection of weak magnetic field.
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).