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Physical Review Letters

New Classes of Magnetic Noise Self-Compensation Effects in Atomic Comagnetometer

Yushu Qin, Zhenhan Shao, Taizhou Hong, Yuanhong Wang, Min Jiang, Xinhua Peng

Published Jul 11, 2024• 22 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Precision measurements of anomalous spin-dependent interactions are often hindered by magnetic noise and other magnetic systematic effects. Atomic comagnetometers use the distinct spin precession of two species and have emerged as important tools for effectively mitigating the magnetic noise. Nevertheless, the operation of existing comagnetometers is limited to very low-frequency noise commonly below 1 Hz. Here, we report a new type of atomic comagnetometer based on a magnetic noise self-compensation mechanism originating from the destructive interference between alkali-metal and noble-gas spins. Our comagnetometer employing K-^{3}He system remarkably suppresses magnetic noise exceeding 2 orders of magnitude at higher frequencies up to 160 Hz. Moreover, we discover that the capability of our comagnetometer to suppress magnetic noise is spatially dependent on the orientation of the noise and can be conveniently controlled by adjusting the applied bias magnetic field. Our findings open up new possibilities for precision measurements, including enhancing the search sensitivity of spin-dark matter particles interactions into unexplored parameter space.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.133.023202

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Precision measurements of anomalous spin-dependent interactions are often hindered by magnetic noise and other magnetic systematic effects. Atomic comagnetometers use the distinct spin precession of two species and have emerged as important tools for effectively mitigating the magnetic noise. Nevertheless, the operation of existing comagnetometers is limited to very low-frequency noise commonly below 1 Hz. Here, we report a new type of atomic comagnetometer based on a magnetic noise self-compensation mechanism originating from the destructive interference between alkali-metal and noble-gas spins. Our comagnetometer employing K-^{3}He system remarkably suppresses magnetic noise exceeding 2 orders of magnitude at higher frequencies up to 160 Hz. Moreover, we discover that the capability of our comagnetometer to suppress magnetic noise is spatially dependent on the orientation of the noise and can be conveniently controlled by adjusting the applied bias magnetic field. Our findings open up new possibilities for precision measurements, including enhancing the search sensitivity of spin-dark matter particles interactions into unexplored parameter space.
Magnetometers are among the most widely used probes in science and technology. Comagnetometers increase sensitivity by self-cancellation of magnetic noise, but only at low frequencies. We suggest a correlated measurement of two alkali species in one cell to cancel the magnetic background also at high frequencies. The inter-species phase difference of the light-matter interaction response function is found to be calibration free and insensitive to common-mode intensity noise. Utilizing a dark-matter signal as a testcase, the method achieves a thirtyfold background suppression, raising the signal-to-noise ratio by an order of magnitude or more, depending on the coupling to the different subatomic particles. We show that the method also provides model differentiation. The higher sensitivity and model differentiation open a path to novel probes for precision measurements in general and exotic fields in particular.
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Abstract Alkali-noble-gas comagnetometers have become an essential tool for tests of fundamental physics and offer a compact platform for precision gyroscopy. They are, however, limited by technical noise at low frequencies, commonly due to their limited suppression of magnetic noise. Here we investigate a new method for co-magnetometry between a single noble gas and alkali species. While similar to well-known devices using self-compensation, our scheme introduces magnetic pulses that controllably perturb the noble gas and pulsed optical pumping to polarise the alkali atoms. These applied pulses allow our scheme to measure, rather than just suppress, the effect of magnetic noise thereby offering reduced cross-talk. We show numerically that our scheme retrieves four signals (rotations and magnetic fields on two transverse axes) with similar sensitivity to a single axis device. We also present a proof-of-principle experiment based on a 87 Rb - 129 Xe cell. Our data shows a low magnetic-rotation cross-talk of 0.2 ± 0.1 μ Hz/pT, which is already on par with the most sensitive devices relying on self-compensation.
Atomic comagnetometers are widely used in precision measurements searching for spin interactions beyond the standard model. We describe a new (3)He-(129)Xe comagnetometer probed by Rb atoms and use it to identify two general classes of systematic effects in gas comagnetometers, one associated with diffusion in second-order magnetic-field gradients and another due to temperature gradients. We also develop and confirm experimentally a general and practical approach for calculating spin relaxation and frequency shifts due to arbitrary magnetic-field gradients.
The atomic comagnetometers (ACMs) based on the spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) regime exhibit extremely high sensitivity in angular velocity measurements, positioning them as leading candidates for next-generation precision inertial sensing. However, magnetic noise remains a significant factor that contributes significantly to long-term bias drift. Here, a comprehensive model in full-frequency band of the angular velocity measurement error induced by magnetic noise in ACMs is established. Based on the proposed model, what we believe to be a new method is proposed to reduce magnetic noise error by suppressing the magnetic field response in the mid-frequency range. After optimizing the temperature of the vapor cell to minimize the magnetic field response in the mid-frequency range, the angular velocity measurement error caused by magnetic noise was reduced by 20.4%, and the bias drift was improved by 34.8%. The theories and methods proposed in this study innovatively highlight the critical role of mid-frequency magnetic field responses in suppressing magnetic noise errors, and provide important guidance for improving bias drift in SERF ACMs.
Self-compensated comagnetometers, employing overlapping samples of spin-polarized alkali and noble gases (for example K-3He{}^{3}\mathrm{He}3He) are promising sensors for exotic beyond-the-standard-model fields and high-precision metrology such as rotation sensing. When the comagnetometer operates in the so-called self-compensated regime, the effective field, originating from contact interactions between the alkali valence electrons and the noble-gas nuclei, is compensated with an applied magnetic field. When the comagnetometer begins operation in a given magnetic field, spin-exchange optical pumping establishes an equilibrium between the alkali electron-spin polarization and the nuclear-spin polarization. Subsequently, when the magnetic field is tuned to the compensation point, the spin polarization is brought out of the equilibrium conditions. This causes a practical issue for long measurement times. We report on a method for closed-loop control of the compensation field. This method allows optimization of the operating parameters, especially magnetic field gradients, in spite of the inherently slow (hours to days) dynamics of the system. With the optimization, higher stable nuclear polarization, longer relaxation times, and stronger electron-nuclear coupling are achieved which is useful for nuclear-spin-based quantum memory, spin amplifiers, and gyroscopes. The optimized sensor demonstrates a sensitivity comparable to the best previous comagnetometer but with four times lower noble-gas density. This paves the way for applications in both fundamental and applied science.