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IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC)

Microfabricated SERF Atomic Magnetometers for Measurement of Weak Magnetic Field

Kangni Liu, Jintang Shang, Jin Zhang, Xiang Yue, Chen Ye, Jianfeng Zhang, Ching‐Ping Wong

Published Jun 1, 2020• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1109/ectc32862.2020.00161

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IEEE Transactions on Magnetics•May 30, 2019•12 citations
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.
Weak gradient magnetic field detection is significant. This paper presents a novel micro-fabricated spin-exchange-relaxation-free (SERF) atomic magnetometer for weak gradient magnetic field detection, and the atomic vapor cell is fabricated by micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Compared to the single-channel magnetometer, the novel magnetometer's signal-to-noise ratio has increased by 3.63 times. The magnetic field gradient noise of the novel magnetometer reaches 45.33 fToHz-1/2ocm-1in the frequency range of 8 to 15 Hz, and the novel magnetometer has a CMRR (common mode rejection ratio) of 6.1. At the same time, the relationship between the magnitude of the magnetic field gradient and the peak of the dispersive signal has been verified, which provides an idea for the detection of weak gradient magnetic field.
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.
The spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) atomic magnetometer is one of the ultra-sensitive magnetometers, which must be operated in a low magnetic field and heated more than 100°C. One of the main engineering difficulties in fabricating a SERF atomic magnetometer is to develop a heater that introduces no additional magnetic noise into the measurement system. In this paper, a novel compact current-heating scheme and apparatus for the SERF atomic magnetometer are proposed. The thermal and magnetic simulations of this apparatus are carried out and the results of the simulations demonstrate the feasibility of this heating apparatus: the vapor cell can be heated to a temperature of 103°C and magnetic field introduced in the magnetometer can be limited in 10nT.
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 presents a novel method to measure the magnetic gradient by an Mz atomic magnetometer using a micro-fabricated shaped rubidium vapor cell. The shaped vapor cell is fabricated by a chemical foaming process. Four micro radio frequency (RF) coils are mounted on the shaped rubidium vapor cell. Magnetic fields at the four points corresponding to the RF coils along the laser beam propagation are obtained by measuring Larmor frequency of the rubidium atoms inside the vapor cell. The magnetic gradients are also acquired with the measured magnetic fields. The measurement is performed in a magnetic shield environment. A dc electrical coil is taken to produce an existed magnetic field for the measurement and the theoretical magnetic field distribution is calculated. It is demonstrated that the measured magnetic fields and magnetic gradients correspond well with the calculated ones. Results show that the absolute error of the magnetic field is less than 0.1 μT, the relative error of the magnetic field is below 0.8%, and the relative error of the magnetic gradient is below 5.5%. Results also indicate that the atomic magnetometer has a sensitivity of 5 pT/Hz1/2from 1 to 2 Hz. The Mz atomic magnetometer is potentially useful for applications requiring gradient field information.