Abstract We theoretically describe the phenomenon of non-adiabatic spin dynamics, which occurs in a gas cell filled by alkali vapor in the presence of a strong alternating magnetic field and pump light. Steep increase of the spin polarization occurs if the frequency of the magnetic field is equal to the certain value. The observable effect relies on the periodic field that consists of two perpendicular components defined by harmonics with the same amplitudes and different frequencies. The considered effect of the coherent spin motion cannot be explained by a resonance, because the Larmor precession is absent without a constant component of magnetic field. Moreover, there are some clearly visible peaks in the excitation spectrum of spin polarization, which are narrow in comparison to the relaxation rate. Detailed analysis according to proposed quantum model results in the reasoning of the effect via qualitative properties of non-adiabatic dynamics of atomic spin.
Abstract We theoretically describe the phenomenon of non-adiabatic spin dynamics, which occurs in a gas cell filled by alkali vapor in the presence of a strong alternating magnetic field and pump light. Steep increase of the spin polarization occurs if the frequency of the magnetic field is equal to the certain value. The observable effect relies on the periodic field that consists of two perpendicular components defined by harmonics with the same amplitudes and different frequencies. The considered effect of the coherent spin motion cannot be explained by a resonance, because the Larmor precession is absent without a constant component of magnetic field. Moreover, there are some clearly visible peaks in the excitation spectrum of spin polarization, which are narrow in comparison to the relaxation rate. Detailed analysis according to proposed quantum model results in the reasoning of the effect via qualitative properties of non-adiabatic dynamics of atomic spin.
We theoretically describe the phenomenon of non-adiabatic spin dynamics, which occurs in a gas cell filled by alkali vapor in presence of a strong alternating magnetic field and pump light. Steep increase of the spin polarization occurs if frequency of the magnetic field is equal to the certain value. Although, the observable effect relies on the periodic field that consists of two perpendicular components defined by harmonics with the same amplitudes and different frequencies. Considered spin effect cannot be explained by a resonance, because the own Larmor frequency of spin precession is absent without a constant component of magnetic field. Moreover, there are some clearly visible peaks in the excitation spectrum of spin polarization, and they are super narrow in comparison to relaxation rate. Detailed analysis according to proposed quantum model results in the reasoning of the effect via qualitative properties of non-adiabatic dynamics of atomic spin.
The response of a spin exchange relaxation free atomic magnetometer to a repetitive short-pulsed pump was investigated. Quantum sub-resonances at a repetition rate of 1/n of the Larmor frequency of the magnetic field inside the shield are experimentally observed and theoretically explained. This is a type of synchronization phenomenon. Investigations in single alkali atom cells and mixed alkali atoms of K and Rb are presented. In the latter, one species is pumped while the probe is on the other species polarized by spin exchange. The effect of spin destruction, spin exchange, and collisions is studied in order to account for the width of the resonances. Quantum calculations of a three-level Λ model for this phenomenon exhibit a dip at the resonance frequency in the absorption spectrum for both cases of pulsed and cw pump modes and an evidence for electromagnetically induced transparency.
A typical magnetic-resonance scheme employs a static bias magnetic field and an orthogonal driving magnetic field oscillating at the Larmor frequency, at which the atomic polarization precesses around the static magnetic field. Here we demonstrate both theoretically and experimentally the variations of the resonance condition and the spin precession dynamics resulting from the parametric modulation of the bias field. We show that the driving magnetic field with the frequency detuned by different harmonics of the parametric modulation frequency can lead to resonance as well. Also, a series of frequency sidebands centered at the driving frequency and spaced by the parametric modulation frequency can be observed in the precession of the atomic polarization. We further show that the resonant amplitudes of the sidebands can be controlled by varying the ratio between the amplitude and the frequency of the parametric modulation. These effects could be used in different atomic magnetometry applications.
Alkali-metal-vapor magnetometers, using coherent precession of polarized atomic spins for magnetic field measurement, have become one of the most sensitive magnetic field detectors. Their application areas range from practical uses such as detections of NMR signals to fundamental physics research such as searches for permanent electric dipole moments. One of the main noise sources of atomic magnetometers comes from the light shift that depends on the frequency of the pump laser. In this work, we theoretically study the light shift, taking into account the relaxation due to the optical pumping and the collision between alkali atoms and between alkali atoms and the buffer gas. Starting from a full master equation containing both the ground and excited states, we adiabatically eliminate the excited states and obtain an effective master equation in the ground-state subspace that shows an intuitive picture and dramatically accelerates the numerical simulation. Solving this effective master equation, we find that in the light-narrowing regime, where the line width is reduced while the coherent precession signal is enhanced, the frequency-dependence of the light shift is largely reduced, which agrees with experimental observations in cesium magnetometers. Since this effective master equation is general and is easily solved, it can be applied to an extensive parameter regime, and also to study other physical problems in alkali-metal-vapor magnetometers, such as heading errors.
It was recently discovered that when there are sufficiently rapid spin-exchange collisions in an alkali-metal vapor, the rf magnetic-resonance frequency of the ground-state atoms becomes a constant fractional value (e.g., 114 for Cs) of the Larmor frequency, and the linewidth becomes inversely proportional to the spin-exchange rate. These properties are in complete contrast to those in the slow spin-exchange limit. We present a theoretical analysis of these properties, and we predict some additional new effects for rapid spin exchange. Four theories are presented; an intuitive-vector model, a perturbation treatment, numerical solutions of complex non-Hermitian matrices, and a statistical analysis of the effect of rapid transfers between two Zeeman multiplets. These theories all provide, to varying degrees, consistent quantitative answers to the problem of how spin exchange affects magnetic resonance in an alkali vapor.
In order to measure a weak alternating magnetic field, an optically-pumped Rb magnetometer based on pump-probe structure is investigated and demonstrated. The pumping light and probing light propagate along the z axis and x axis, respectively. A constant polarization magnetic field along the pumping light is applied, which not only stabilizes the polarization of Rb atoms but also tunes resonance frequency of Rb atoms. When a weak alternating magnetic field is applied perpendicularly to the constant magnetic field, the magnetic moment will tip off the z axis and rotate around the z axis. And then the polarization plane of probing light is modulated correspondingly. The x component of the magnetic moment can be obtained with a balanced detector. As a result, a signal proportional to weak alternating magnetic field can be obtained.In order to obtain the magnetic response of the magnetometer, we analyze the signal amplitude as a function of polarization magnetic field strength B0 and transverse relaxation time 2 with numerical simulation. The amplitude-frequency response of the magnetometer is determined mainly by two parameters, namely cutoff frequency c=1/2 and resonance frequency 0= B0, where is the gyromagnetic ratio of Rb atom. At low frequency, that is a0 and a 0c2, the magnetometer has a flat response, here a is the frequency of the weak alternating magnetic field. If 0c, the signal amplitude will be large for large 0 or small c. For a given c, the peak response appears at 0=c. In the vicinity of resonance frequency, if c0, a peak will appear and if c 0, no peak occurs. At high frequency, the amplitude will decrease with the increase of a.We verify the above analyses in experiment. A vapor cell with a short transverse relaxation time is used to obtain large frequency response bandwidth. Through optimizing the powers and frequencies of pumping laser and probing laser, high polarization and detection sensitivity of atomic spin can be obtained. Moreover, through choosing an appropriate polarization magnetic field, the magnetometer can be maximally sensitive to the magnetic field to be measured. The experimental results show that the magnetometer has a sensitivity of about m 0.2; pT/HzHz and bandwidth of about 3.5 kHz. It can be used to detect low field magnetic resonance and high frequency abnormal physical phenomena.