Unambiguous vector magnetometry with structured light in atomic vapor

Christopher Kiehl, Tobias Thiele, Daniel Wagner +4 more

Dmitry Budker

Seeram Ramakrishna, S. Fritzsche

Absorption profiles of vector light upon interaction with atomic vapor carries distinct signatures of an external magnetic field vector. However, this signature becomes ambiguous for antiparallel magnetic field vectors of equal magnitude, which makes their absorption profiles visually indistinguishable. To resolve this ambiguity, we present a theoretical analysis of the interaction of vector light with optically polarized atoms immersed in reference and test magnetic fields. Furthermore, we demonstrate the complete characterization of the arbitrarily oriented test magnetic field via a Fourier analysis of the absorption profile. This analysis reveals a one-to-one correspondence between the magnetic field properties and the profile's contrast and rotational angle. Our findings open an avenue to design an optical vector atomic magnetometer based on structured light fields.

Anonymous, Di Zhan, Jixi Lu +7 more

A. I. Alekseev

Ben Whitenack, Devan Tormey, Michael Crescimanno +2 more

Intensity noise cross-correlation of the polarization eigenstates of light emerging from an atomic vapor cell in the Hanle EIT configuration results in high resolution spectroscopy even with free-running semiconductor lasers. We show that the character of the observed intensity noise in any output polarization basis can be modeled as a Markov process in the input light fields’ amplitudes that excite the response of a three-level medium. This method has promise as an inexpensive and simpler approach to vector magnetometry and has applications in timekeeping and as a probe of dynamics of atomic coherence in warm vapor cells.