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Journal of Contemporary Physics (Armenian Academy of Sciences)

Concept of an Optical Magnetometer Based on the Spectroscopy of Alkali Vapors Confined in Nanometric-Thick Cells

Emmanuel Klinger

Published Oct 1, 2018• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this article, we present the concept of an optical scalar magnetometer based on the spectroscopy of hot alkali vapors confined in nanometric-thick cells. We present an appropriate theoretical model to describe the interaction of linearly and circularly polarized light with atomic alkali vapors confined in extremely thin cells where a longitudinal magnetic field is applied. This model can be used to perform consecutive fittings of experimental spectra recorded by derivative selective reflection method, in order to measure the value of magnetic field. We illustrate the model with various calculated spectra for natural Rb vapor, while equivalent results hold for other alkalis (Na, K, Cs). We analyze the feasibility of the concept for different cases depending on light polarization and cell thickness, and discuss possible limitations of the technique.

DOI
10.3103/s1068337218040060

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In this article, we present the concept of an optical scalar magnetometer based on the spectroscopy of hot alkali vapors confined in nanometric-thick cells. We present an appropriate theoretical model to describe the interaction of linearly and circularly polarized light with atomic alkali vapors confined in extremely thin cells where a longitudinal magnetic field is applied. This model can be used to perform consecutive fittings of experimental spectra recorded by derivative selective reflection method, in order to measure the value of magnetic field. We illustrate the model with various calculated spectra for natural Rb vapor, while equivalent results hold for other alkalis (Na, K, Cs). We analyze the feasibility of the concept for different cases depending on light polarization and cell thickness, and discuss possible limitations of the technique.
Sub-Doppler nature of atomic spectra in alkali metal vapor cells of nanometric thickness L (nanocells) allows one to study peculiarities of magneto-optical processes, which occur in a magnetic field for the case when L is of the order of λ (λ is a laser resonant wavelength). We particularly address the issues of practical implementation of the studied processes. The following results are presented. i) A "λ-Zeeman technique" exploiting velocity-selective optical pumping resonances in L = λ Rb cell placed in a B-field, which allows direct determination frequency shifts and modification of transition probabilities of individual Zeeman transitions in magnetic field and is applicable for development of wide-range (~ 0.1 - 1000 mT) optical magnetometers and tunable frequency reference. ii) A technique for locking the laser radiation frequency, B-field-tunable in ~ 500 MHz range, which is based on selective reflection of a circularly-polarized laser beam from Rb vapor cell with thickness L ≈ λ/2.
line spectra recorded by derivative selective reflection spectroscopy from an optical nanometric-thick cell. To demonstrate its efficiency, the magnetometer is used to measure the inhomogeneous magnetic field produced by a permanent neodymium--iron-boron alloy ring magnet at different distances. The computational tasks are realized by relatively cheap electronic components: an Arduino Due board for external control of the laser and acquisition of spectra, and a Raspberry Pi computer for the fitting. The coefficient of variation of the measurements remains under 5% in the magnetic field range of 40-200 mT, limited only by the size of the oven and translation stage used in our experiment. The proposed scheme is expected to operate with high measurement precision also for stronger magnetic fields ($ {\gt} {500}\;{\rm mT}$>500mT) in the hyperfine Paschen-Back regime, where the evolution of atomic transitions can be calculated with high accuracy.
We measured the spatial homogeneity of spin polarization, which is directly related to the sensitivity and magnetic linewidth of an optically pumped atomic magnetometer with a hybrid cell of K and Rb atoms. This was done by changing the position of the probe beam. Furthermore, for comparison, we also measured the sensitivity and magnetic linewidth of atomic magnetometers with single K and single Rb cells, and found that optically thick atoms were spin polarized homogeneously with the hybrid cell. Optically thin alkali metal vapor can be spin polarized homogeneously, and the spin polarization transfers to an optically thick alkali metal vapor. An atomic magnetometer with the hybrid cell was found to be more effective in realizing simultaneous signal measurements at different locations with the uniform sensitivity and magnetic linewidth.
Ground-state level-crossing magneto-optical resonances are registered at the D2 line of 85Rb atoms as a small admixture in a 700 µm thick cell filled with Cs atoms. The signals of the Rb atoms in a “buffer gas” of hot Cs atoms are compared with the signals from atoms without hot “buffer gas” (the thermal Cs atoms in the 700 µm cell and a nanometric cell). Our results show that the Rb particles show an intermediate behavior between these two cases under such conditions. This is explained based on adequate confinement size determined by the polarization relaxation of the Rb atoms by spin-exchange collisions with the high-density Cs atoms. The possibility of realizing such temperature-controlled variation of the effective confinement size can be of interest for investigating collisions between different alkali atoms and the formation of dimers under the conditions of one-dimensional confinement.
39 K atoms have the smallest ground state ( 2 S 1 / 2 ) hyperfine splitting of all the most naturally abundant alkali isotopes and, consequently, the smallest characteristic magnetic field value B 0 = A 2 S 1 / 2 / μ B ≈ 170 G , where A 2 S 1 / 2 is the ground state’s magnetic dipole interaction constant. In the hyperfine Paschen–Back regime ( B ≫ B 0 , where B is the magnitude of the external magnetic field applied on the atoms), only eight Zeeman transitions are visible in the absorption spectrum of the D 1 line of 39 K , while the probabilities of the remaining 16 Zeeman transitions tend to zero. In the case of 39 K , this behavior is reached already at relatively low magnetic field B > B 0 . For each circular polarization ( σ − , σ + ), four spectrally resolved atomic transitions having sub-Doppler widths are recorded using a sub-microsized vapor cell of thickness L = 120 − 390 n m . We present a method that allows to measure the magnetic field in the range of 0.1 − 10 k G with micrometer spatial resolution, which is relevant in particular for the determination of magnetic fields with large gradients (up to 3 G/µm). The theoretical model describes well the experimental results.
Ground-state level-crossing magneto-optical resonances are registered at the D2 line of 85Rb atoms as a small admixture in a 700 μm thick cell filled with Cs atoms. The signals of the Rb atoms in a “buffer gas” of hot Cs atoms are compared with the signals from atoms without hot “buffer gas” (the thermal Cs atoms in the 700 μm cell and a nanometric cell). Our results show that the Rb particles show an intermediate behavior between these two cases under such conditions. This is explained based on adequate confinement size determined by the polarization relaxation of the Rb atoms by spinexchange collisions with the high-density Cs atoms. The possibility of realizing such temperature-controlled variation of the effective confinement size can be of interest for investigating collisions between different alkali atoms and the formation of dimers under the conditions of one-dimensional confinement.