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Applied Optics

Technical limits of sensitivity for EIT magnetometry

James McKelvy, Mario A. Maldonado, Irina V. Novikova, Eugeniy E. Mikhailov, Andrey B. Matsko

Published Aug 4, 2023• 8 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Optical magnetometers based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in atomic vapor can in principle achieve outstanding sensitivity and accuracy in a small volume. Up until now, however, the predicted fundamental quantum-noise-limited sensitivity has not been achieved in practice due to various technical limitations associated with the measurement apparatus. Here we analyze these restrictions and propose viable mitigation strategies for performance optimization. As an example, we show that an EIT magnetometer can theoretically achieve sensitivity better than 100 fT at 1 s measurement time under realistic conditions.

DOI
10.1364/ao.497368

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Optical magnetometers based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in atomic vapor can in principle achieve outstanding sensitivity and accuracy in a small volume. Up until now, however, the predicted fundamental quantum-noise-limited sensitivity has not been achieved in practice due to various technical limitations associated with the measurement apparatus. Here we analyze these restrictions and propose viable mitigation strategies for performance optimization. As an example, we show that an EIT magnetometer can theoretically achieve sensitivity better than 100 fT at 1 s measurement time under realistic conditions.
We analyze systematic (classical) and fundamental (quantum) limitations of the sensitivity of optical magnetometers resulting from ac Stark shifts. We show that in contrast to absorption-based techniques, the signal reduction associated with classical broadening can be compensated in magnetometers based on phase measurements using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). However due to ac Stark--associated quantum noise the signal-to-noise ratio of EIT-based magnetometers attains a maximum value at a certain laser intensity. This value is independent on the quantum statistics of the light and defines a standard quantum limit of sensitivity. We demonstrate that an EIT-based optical magnetometer in Faraday configuration is the best candidate to achieve the highest sensitivity of magnetic-field detection and give a detailed analysis of such a device.
We present an experimental module on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a Hanle configuration aimed to application for precise metrology. The EIT line width of the order of hundred hertz equivalent to nano-Tesla magnetic flux density has been achieved in rubidium atomic vapors with Ne buffer gases at room temperature. It can be interest for build of EIT based all-optical compact magnetometers, competitive to the most sensitive magnetometers based on superconducting quantum interference devices.
Magnetic sensors are widely used in many applications including medical diagnostics, geomagnetic survey, etc. Scalar atomic magnetometers that have demonstrated sensitivity at and below fT/ Hz^1/2 level can be adapted to include measurement of magnetic field orientation but usually at the cost of accuracy and with limitation of dynamic range. Magnetometry using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) instead was used to provide both scalar accuracy and vector information with angle resolution at a level of 10-3 deg/Hz^1/2. We present a scheme for EIT vector magnetic field measurement with the common-mode drift suppression by probing multiple EIT resonances. The demonstrated sensitivity is stable to < 200 pT/ Hz^1/2 at 1 mHz.
A three-level EIT (electromagnetically induced transparency) vapor is used to manipulate the transparency and absorption properties of the probe light in a waveguide. The most remarkable feature of the present scheme is such that the optical responses resulting from both electromagnetically induced transparency and large spontaneous emission enhancement are very sensitive to the frequency detunings of the probe light as well as to the small changes of the waveguide dimension. The potential applications of the dimension- and dispersion-sensitive EIT responses are discussed, and the sensitivity limits of some waveguide-based sensors, including electric absorption modulator, optical switch, wavelength sensor, and sensitive magnetometer, are analyzed.