基于超精细结构下的激光光泵铯磁力仪的理论研究

激光光泵碱金属磁力仪具有很高的灵敏度,测量范围可以从地球磁场到生物磁场。给出了铯（Cs）光泵磁力仪的理论分析和系统设计以及磁场梯度测量原理,铯原子能级在I—J耦合时形成超精细结构,在外磁场的作用下超精细结构进一步产生塞曼分裂形成塞曼子能级,利用激光泵浦和射频磁场能够使电子在超精细结构中进行能级跃迁,产生光磁双共振的结果,最终通过共振频率就能够达到精确测量外磁场的目的。     

High-sensitivity atomic magnetometer unaffected by spin-exchange relaxation

Alkali-metal magnetometers compete with SQUID detectors as the most sensitive magnetic field sensors. Their sensitivity is limited by relaxation due to spin-exchange collisions. We demonstrate a K magnetometer in which spin-exchange relaxation is completely eliminated by operating at high K density and low magnetic field. Direct measurements of the signal-to-noise ratio give a magnetometer sensitivity of 10 fT Hz(-1/2), limited by magnetic noise produced by Johnson currents in the magnetic shields. We extend a previous theoretical analysis of spin exchange in low magnetic fields to arbitrary spin polarizations and estimate the shot-noise limit of the magnetometer to be 2x10(-18) T Hz(-1/2).     

Hyperpolarized xenon nuclear spins detected by optical atomic magnetometry

We report the use of an atomic magnetometer based on nonlinear magneto-optical rotation with frequency-modulated light to detect nuclear magnetization of xenon gas. The magnetization of a spin-exchange-polarized xenon sample (1.7 c m(3) at a pressure of 5 bars, natural isotopic abundance, polarization 1% ), prepared remotely to the detection apparatus, is measured with an atomic sensor. An average magnetic field of approximately 10 nG induced by the xenon sample on the 10 cm diameter atomic sensor is detected with signal-to-noise ratio approximately 10 , limited by residual noise in the magnetic environment. The possibility of using modern atomic magnetometers as detectors of nuclear magnetic resonance and in magnetic resonance imaging is discussed. Atomic magnetometers appear to be ideally suited for emerging low-field and remote-detection magnetic resonance applications.     

A laser pump-re-pump atomic magnetometer

We demonstrate experimentally an atomic magnetometer based on optical pumping theory, a magnetic resonance that is induced by a radio frequency field and dependent on the magnetic field strength. Compared with the conventional method using one radiation field, which is used not only as the probe beam but also as a pump beam, the additional re-pump beam can increase remarkably the amplitude of the signal. It is shown that the amplitude of the magnetic field resonance signal can increase more than 55% by using an additional re-pump beam, which makes the sensitivity of the magnetometer higher. Finally, we investigate the relation between amplitude of the signal and re-pump laser power, and calculate the atomic population in the trapping states with rate equations.     

A modified analytical model of the alkali-metal atomic magnetometer employing longitudinal carrier field

Alkali-metal atomic magnetometers employing longitudinal carrier magnetic field have ultrahigh sensitivity to measure transverse magnetic fields and have been applied in a variety of precise-measurement science and technologies. In practice, the magnetometer response is not rigorously proportional to the measured transverse magnetic fields and the existing fundamental analytical model of this magnetometer is effective only when the amplitudes of the measured fields are very small. In this paper, we present a modified analytical model to characterize the practical performance of the magnetometer more definitely. We find out how the longitudinal magnetization of the alkali metal atoms vary with larger transverse fields. The linear-response capacity of the magnetometer is determined by these factors: the amplitude and frequency of the longitudinal carrier field, longitudinal and transverse spin relaxation time of the alkali spins and rotation frequency of the transverse fields. We give a detailed and rigorous theoretical derivation by using the perturbation-iteration method and simulation experiments are conducted to verify the validity and correctness of the proposed modified model. This model can be helpful for measuring larger fields more accurately and configuring a desirable magnetometer with proper linear range.     

Combined effect of light intensity and temperature on the magnetic resonance linewidth in alkali vapor cell with buffer gas

One of the peculiar phenomenons in non-zero magnetic resonance magnetometer is that, with the increase of the temperature, the magnetic resonance linewidth is narrowed at first instead of broadened due to the increasing collision rate. The magnetometer usually operates at the narrowest linewidth temperature to obtain the best sensitivity. Here, we explain this phenomenon quantitatively considering the nonlinear of the optical pumping in the cell and did experiments to verify this explanation. The magnetic resonance linewidth is measured using one amplitude-modulated pump laser and one continuous probe laser. The field is along the direction orthogonal to the plane of pump and probe beams. We change the temperature from 53℃ to 93℃ and the pumping light from 0.1 mW to 2 mW. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical calculations.     

Gradiometric investigation of a cesium-vapor quantum magnetometer

Experiments aimed to determine the sensitivity and the optical shift of the output frequency of a magnetometer based on optical pumping of cesium atoms and intended for a neutron magnetic resonance stabilization system are described. A gradiometric arrangement used in these experiments makes it possible to reduce the effect of magnetic field variations on measurements.     

提高激光抽运铯原子磁力仪灵敏度的研究

本文报道了一种基于激光抽运射频共振的铯原子磁力仪. 通过圆偏振光将铯原子抽运到暗态, 实现偏极化. 外磁场存在时, 原子磁矩将以拉莫尔频率绕外磁场进动. 在共振射频磁场的作用下, 原子被去极化而重新吸收光子. 通过探测出射光光谱可以测得拉莫尔频率进而得到外磁场的信息. 本文通过运用自制的894 nm 外腔半导体激光器, 建立了激光稳频装置和低噪声磁场测量环境, 实现了一种基于铯原子激光抽运射频共振的磁力仪. 通过磁力仪参数优化以及闭环测量, 磁力仪测量的外磁场达到了19 fT/Hz^1/2的极限灵敏度和1.8 pT/Hz^1/2的本征灵敏度, 空间分辨率小于2 cm. 关键词： 光抽运 塞曼效应 光探测磁共振 磁力仪     

An all-optical, high-sensitivity magnetic gradiometer

Optical magnetometers have reached sensitivities that make them interesting candidates for the measurement of weak magnetic fields also outside physics laboratories. In order to overcome problems with stray magnetic fields a common solution with existing magnetometers is to operate a pair of them in a gradiometer configuration: one sensor measures the signal plus the stray fields, while the other one is mounted such that it is only influenced by the stray fields. In the difference signal the stray fields cancel. We have constructed such a gradiometer consisting of two sensors based on coherent population trapping (CPT) resonances in a thermal cesium vapor. Using a magnetic bias field the intrinsically scalar CPT magnetometer can be turned into a true vector magnetometer that is insensitive to magnetic fields perpendicular to a chosen measurement direction. We describe how to align and calibrate the gradiometer. Stray field suppression by more than two orders of magnitude has been achieved, limited by the sensitivity of the magnetometer. This makes possible the detection of picotesla flux density changes in a weakly shielded or even unshielded environment. Received: 3 April 2002 / Published online: 15 November 2002 RID="*" ID="*"New address: Département de Physique, Université de Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 3, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland RID="**" ID="**"Corresponding author. Fax: +41-26/300-9631, E-mail: robert.wynands@unifr.ch     

Progress of the nEDM experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute

Advances in experimental searches for a neutron Electric Dipole Moment (nEDM, d _n ) are motivated by the potential discovery of a new source of CP violation beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. The nEDM experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), which with accumulated sensitivity of 1.09 × 10^?26 e?cm (September 2016) is currently the most sensitive nEDM experiment worldwide, uses the Ramsey technique of separated oscillatory fields applied to stored ultracold neutrons. The nEDM measurements depend upon precise information about the magnetic field, which is monitored by a ¹⁹⁹Hg co-magnetometer and an array of ¹³³Cs magnetometers. The principle of the magnetic field measurement is based on the optical detection of the Larmor precession frequency of atoms polarized by optical pumping. In this article we present the recent progress of the nEDM experiment as well as details of a magnetic field measurements with special focus on the laser-operated array of high-sensitivity ¹³³Cs magnetometers.     

High-resolution magnetometry with a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate

We demonstrate a precise magnetic microscope based on direct imaging of the Larmor precession of a 87Rb spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. This magnetometer attains a field sensitivity of 8.3 pT/Hz1/2 over a measurement area of 120 microm2, an improvement over the low-frequency field sensitivity of modern SQUID magnetometers. The achieved phase sensitivity is close to the atom shot-noise limit, estimated as 0.15 pT/Hz1/2 for a unity duty cycle measurement, suggesting the possibilities of spatially resolved spin-squeezed magnetometry. This magnetometer marks a significant application of degenerate atomic gases to metrology.     

A laser-pumped magnetometer for the mapping of human cardiomagnetic fields

Magnetic fields produced by biological organisms contain valuable information on the underlying physiological processes and their pathologies. Currently, superconducting detectors cooled far below room temperature are required to measure these generally weak biomagnetic signals. We have developed a sensitive laser magnetometer based on optical pumping of cesium atoms that makes it possible to map the magnetic field produced by the beating human heart. A gradiometer formed by two identical sensors greatly reduces the influence of external stray magnetic fields. The magnetometer operates at room temperature and therefore opens the way to affordable and convenient monitoring of biomagnetic fields in research and medical diagnostics. Received: 8 January 2003 / Published online: 26 February 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +41-26/300-9631, E-mail: robert.wynands@unifr.ch     

High contrast atomic magnetometer based on coherent population trapping

We present an experimental and theoretical investigation of the coherent population trapping （CPT） resonance excited on the D1 line of 87Rb atoms by bichromatic linearly polarized laser light. The experimental results show that a lin｜｜lin tran- sition scheme is a promising alternative to the conventional circular-circular transition scheme for an atomic magnetometer. Compared with the circular light transition scheme, linear light accounts for high-contrast transmission resonances, which makes this excitation scheme promising for high-sensitivity magnetometers. We also use linear light and circular light to detect changes of a standard magnetic field, separately.     

极化检测型铷原子磁力仪的研究

针对交变弱磁场的检测,研制了一种基于极化-检测双光束结构的激光抽运铷原子磁力仪.为了获得该磁力仪对磁场的响应特性,通过数值仿真分析了信号幅度随极化磁场强度、弛豫时间的变化关系,并进行了实验验证.最后通过选择合适的极化磁场使磁力仪对待测磁场的灵敏度最大.实验结果表明,优化后磁力仪灵敏度为0.2pT/(Hz)~(1/2),响应带宽3.5kHz,可用于弱磁场磁共振、高频异常物理现象等信号的检测.     

Dead-zone-free atomic magnetometry with simultaneous excitation of orientation and alignment resonances

Atomic magnetometers have very high absolute precision and sensitivity to magnetic fields but suffer from a fundamental problem: the vectorial or tensorial interaction of light with atoms leads to "dead zones," certain orientations of the magnetic field where the magnetometer loses its sensitivity. We demonstrate a simple polarization modulation scheme that simultaneously creates coherent population trapping (CPT) in orientation and alignment, thereby eliminating dead zones. Using 87Rb in a 10?Torr buffer gas cell we measure narrow, high-contrast CPT transparency peaks for all orientations and also show the absence of systematic effects associated with nonlinear Zeeman splitting.     

Dynamic range and linearity improvement for zero-field single-beam atomic magnetometer

Zero-field single-beam atomic magnetometers with transverse parametric modulation for ultra-weak magnetic field detection have attracted widespread attention recently. In this study, we present a comprehensive response model and propose a modification method of conventional first harmonic response by introducing the second harmonic correction. The proposed modification method gives improvement in dynamic range and reduction of linearity error. Additionally, our modification method shows suppression of response instability caused by optical intensity and frequency fluctuations. An atomic magnetometer with single-beam configuration is built to compare the performance between our proposed method and the conventional method. The results indicate that our method's magnetic field response signal achieves a 5-fold expansion of dynamic range from 2 nT to 10 nT, with the linearity error decreased from 5% to 1%. Under the fluctuations of 5% for optical intensity and ±15 GHz detuning of frequency, the proposed modification method maintains intensity-related instability less than 1% and frequency-related instability less than 8% while the conventional method suffers 15% and 38%, respectively. Our method is promising for future high-sensitive and long-term stable optically pumped atomic sensors.     

A Rb-magnetometer for a wide range and high sensitivity

A Rb-magnetometer was constructed for a wide range of application. It uses a very small optically pumped resonance cell with an active volume of less than 0.1 cm³ as the sensor element. The cell is housed in a small probe containing polarizer, rf-coil, heater and photoelement. The pumping light is brought to the resonance cell by use of a 3 m long fibre optics. The magnetometer allows continuous monitoring or stabilizing magnetic fields from about 3·10^?8T to beyond 0.3T. The ultimate sensitivity of the instrument is of the order of 10^?10T. Observing the Hanle signal in the transverse mode of optical pumping the instrument can be used for zero field detection and for the measurement for weak fields by means of field compensation.     

Optical spin orientation of a single manganese atom in a quantum dot

The magnetic state of a single magnetic atom (Mn) embedded in an individual semiconductor quantum dot is optically probed using micro-spectroscopy. A high degree of spin polarization can be achieved for an individual Mn atom localized in a quantum dot using quasi-resonant or fully-resonant optical excitation at zero magnetic field. Optically created spin polarized carriers generate an energy splitting of the Mn spin and enable magnetic moment orientation controlled by the photon helicity and energy. The dynamics and the magnetic field dependence of the optical pumping mechanism shows that the spin lifetime of an isolated Mn atom at zero magnetic field is controlled by a magnetic anisotropy induced by the built-in strain in the quantum dots. The Mn spin distribution prepared by optical pumping is fully conserved for a few microseconds. This opens the way to full optical control of the spin state of an individual magnetic atom in a solid state environment.     

High frequency atomic magnetometer by use of electromagnetically induced transparency

Atomic magnetometers have achieved magnetic sensitivities in the subfemtotesla regime. Their bandwidth is determined by the transverse spin relaxation rate, 1/T2, which also determines the magnetic sensitivity. It is theoretically demonstrated that by using an electromagnetically induced transparent probe beam in a pump-probe atomic magnetometer, it is possible to operate the latter at frequencies much higher than its bandwidth, maintaining a high signal-to-noise ratio.     

Magnetometer based on a pair of symmetric transitions in the 87Rb hyperfine structure

A new version of the fast optically pumped magnetometer, an optically pumped balanced quantum magnetometer, built around a pair of symmetric transitions in the hyperfine structure of the ⁸⁷Rb ground state is implemented for the first time. The noise-limited sensitivity of the prototype in terms of the variance is 6 pT for a measurement time of 0.1 s. The basic advantages of the new magnetometer are the absence of dead zones when it changes orientation relative to the magnetic field and an extremely low sensitivity to the drift of pumping parameters.