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.

Research on an pump-probe rubidium magnetometer

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 τ₂ with numerical simulation. The amplitude-frequency response of the magnetometer is determined mainly by two parameters, namely cutoff frequency ω_c=1/τ₂ and resonance frequency ω₀=γ B₀, where γ is the gyromagnetic ratio of Rb atom. At low frequency, that is ω_a«ω₀ and ω_a ω₀«ω_c², the magnetometer has a flat response, here ω_a is the frequency of the weak alternating magnetic field. If ω₀«ω_c, the signal amplitude will be large for large ω₀ or small ω_c. For a given ω_c, the peak response appears at ω₀=ω_c. In the vicinity of resonance frequency, if ω_c«ω₀, a peak will appear and if ω_c ω₀, no peak occurs. At high frequency, the amplitude will decrease with the increase of ω_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.