Tunable atomic magnetometer for detection of radio-frequency magnetic fields

We describe an alkali-metal magnetometer for detection of weak magnetic fields in the radio-frequency (rf) range. High sensitivity is achieved by tuning the Zeeman resonance of alkali atoms to the rf frequency and partially suppressing spin-exchange collisions in the alkali-metal vapor. We demonstrate magnetic field sensitivity of 2 fT/Hz(1/2) at a frequency of 99 kHz with a resonance width of 400 Hz. We also derive a simple analytic expression for the fundamental limit on the sensitivity of the rf magnetometer and show that a sensitivity of about 0.01 fT/Hz(1/2) can be achieved in a practical system with a measurement volume of 200 cm3.     

Dynamics of two overlapping spin ensembles interacting by spin exchange

We describe linear and nonlinear dynamics of spin-polarized K and 3He ensembles interacting by spin exchange. The interactions are dominated by the imaginary part of the spin-exchange cross section and each spin species is primarily affected by the average magnetization of the other. Operating in a very low magnetic field we demonstrate novel dynamics when the electron and nuclear spin precession frequencies are nearly matched. We observe transverse damping as well as a dynamic instability of the 3He spins interacting with polarized K vapor. We also demonstrate operation as a self-compensating comagnetometer, useful for tests of CPT violation and other precision measurements.     

Development of co-located 129Xe and 131Xe nuclear spin masers with external feedback scheme

We report on the operation of co-located ¹²⁹Xe and ¹³¹Xe nuclear spin masers with an external feedback scheme, and discuss the use of ¹³¹Xe as a comagnetometer in measurements of the ¹²⁹Xe spin precession frequency. By applying a correction based on the observed change in the ¹³¹Xe frequency, the frequency instability due to magnetic field and cell temperature drifts are eliminated by two orders of magnitude. The frequency precision of 6.2 μHz is obtained for a 10⁴ s averaging time, suggesting the possibility of future improvement to ≈ 1 nHz by improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the observation.     

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).     

Present status of the 129Xe comagnetometer development for neutron EDM measurement

A ¹²⁹Xe comagnetometer designed for the measurement of neutron electric dipole moment (nEDM) as precisely as 1 × 10^?27e cm is presented. Highly nuclear spin polarized ¹²⁹Xe are introduced into an EDM cell where the ¹²⁹Xe spin precession is detected by means of the two-photon transition. The geometric phase effect (GPE) which generates the false nEDM was quantitatively discussed and the systematic error of nEDM from the GPE was estimated considering the buffer-gas suppression due to Xe atomic collisions. Research and development are in progress to construct the ¹²⁹Xe comagnetometer with a field sensitivity of 0.3 fT. At present, about 70 % nuclear spin polarized ¹²⁹Xe atoms have been obtained in a spin exchange opitial pumping cell, that are in the process of being transferred into the EDM cell via a cold trap.     

碱金属气室无磁电加热技术研究与系统设计

基于量子精密测量的原子自旋陀螺仪具有高精度、小体积、低成本等优势,被认为是未来陀螺仪的发展方向;原子自旋陀螺仪的核心部件是承载原子自旋的碱金属气室;碱金属气室加热温度的稳定性是决定原子自旋陀螺仪精度和灵敏度的重要因素之一;同时,原子自旋陀螺仪的高灵敏度使其对磁场噪声极其敏感,因此要求加热过程不能引入额外的磁场干扰;针对以上要求,对原子自旋陀螺仪的无磁电加热技术进行了研究;设计并搭建了以Pt1000作为温度传感器,双层对称结构的加热膜作为加热元件,结合源测量单元、数据采集板卡、正弦波信号发生电路、驱动电路以及LabVIEW软件平台构成的无磁电加热系统;通过实验测试,本系统引入的等效干扰磁场优于15 fT/Hz1/2,气室温度短期稳定度优于±5 mK,长期稳定度优于±10 mK,为原子自旋陀螺仪的性能提升提供了可靠保障。     

Can a quantum nondemolition measurement improve the sensitivity of an atomic magnetometer?

We consider the limitations due to noise (e.g., quantum projection noise and photon shot-noise) on the sensitivity of an idealized atomic magnetometer that utilizes spin squeezing induced by a continuous quantum nondemolition measurement. Such a magnetometer measures spin precession of N atomic spins by detecting optical rotation of far-detuned light. We show that for very short measurement times, the optimal sensitivity scales as N(-3/4); if strongly squeezed probe light is used, the Heisenberg limit of N-1 scaling can be achieved. However, if the measurement time exceeds tau(rel)/N(1/2) in the former case, or tau(rel)/N in the latter, where tau(rel) is the spin relaxation time, the scaling becomes N(-1/2), as for a standard shot-noise-limited magnetometer.     

基于光偏振旋转效应的碱金属气室原子极化率测量方法及影响因素分析

利用原子自旋效应能够实现超高灵敏度的惯性和磁场测量。一类操控原子自旋处于无自旋交换弛豫态的器件可以进行物理参数测量。碱金属气室为该类器件的敏感表头。碱金属原子密度与原子极化率是碱金属气室的重要参数,对研究原子自旋处于无自旋交换弛豫态有着重要的作用。光的偏振效应在量子计算和原子物理研究中发挥了重要作用。利用光的偏振效应能够实现对碱金属原子密度与原子极化率的检测。提出一种基于光偏振旋转效应的碱金属原子极化率测量方法。首先对碱金属气室加恒定磁场,利用激光作为检测光,根据光偏振旋转原理,检测通过气室的偏振光的法拉第旋转角,得到碱金属气室原子密度。然后将碱金属原子抽运,利用激光作为检测光,检测通过气室的偏振光的偏转角,得到碱金属原子极化率。该方法在测量原子极化率的过程中也测量了碱金属原子密度,实现利用一套系统测量两个重要参数,具有快速测量和高灵敏度等特点,简化了实验设备及过程。对两种偏转角进行仿真分析,得到该方法实验时检测激光波长变化对偏转角的影响,根据仿真图得到检测激光波长的可取范围,验证了该方法的可行性。最后分析激光器波长波动与磁场波动对其测量精度的影响,提出实验对激光器与磁场的要求。     

Atomic Electric Dipole Moment Measurement Using Spin Exchange Pumped Masers of 129Xe and 3He

We have measured the T-odd permanent electric dipole moment of 129Xe with spin exchange pumped masers and a 3He comagnetometer. The comagnetometer provides a direct measure of several systematic effects that may limit electric dipole moment sensitivity, and we have directly measured the effects of changes in leakage current that result when the applied electric field is changed. Our result, d(129Xe) = 0.7+/-3.3(stat)+/-0.1(syst)x10(-27)e cm, is a fourfold improvement in sensitivity.     

Ultra-sensitive magnetometry based on free precession of nuclear spins

We discuss the design and performance of a very sensitive low-field magnetometer based on the detection of free spin precession of gaseous, nuclear polarized ³He or ¹²⁹Xe samples with a SQUID as magnetic flux detector. The device will be employed to control fluctuating magnetic fields and gradients in a new experiment searching for a permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron. Furthermore, with the detection of the free precession of co-located ³He/¹²⁹Xe nuclear spins it can be used as ultra-sensitive probe for non-magnetic spin interactions, since the magnetic dipole interaction (Zeeman-term) drops out. Characteristic spin precession times T₂ ^* of up to 60 h were measured. The achieved signal-to-noise ratio of more than 5000:1 leads to an expected sensitivity level (Cramer-Rao lower bound) of δB≈1 fT after an integration time of 220 s and of δB≈10^-4 fT after one day. By means of a co-located ³He/¹²⁹Xe magnetometer, noise sources inherent in the magnetometer could be investigated, showing that CRLB is fulfilled, at least down to δB≈10^-2 fT. The reason for such a high sensitivity is that free precessing ³He (¹²⁹Xe) nuclear spins are almost completely decoupled from the environment. Therefore, this type of magnetometer is particularly attractive for precision field measurements where long-term stability is required.     

Search for topological defect of axionlike model with cesium atomic comagnetometer

Many terrestrial experiments have been designed to detect domain walls composed of axions or axionlike particles(ALPs), which are promising candidates of dark matter. When the domain wall crosses over the Earth, the pseudoscalar field of ALPs could couple to the atomic spins. Such exotic spin-dependent couplings can be searched for by monitoring the transient-in-time change of the atomic spin precession frequency in the presence of a magnetic field. We propose here a single-species cesium atomic comagnetometer, which measures the spin precession frequencies of atoms in different ground-state hyperfine levels, to eliminate the common-mode magnetic-field variations and search for the exotic nonmagnetic couplings solely between protons and ALPs. With the single-species atomic comagnetometer, we experimentally rule out the possibility that the decay constant of the linear pseudoscalar couplings of ALPs to protons is f_p■ 3.71 ×10~7 Ge V. The advanced system has the potential to constrain the constant to be f_p■ 10.7 × 10~9 Ge V, promising to improve astrophysical constraint level by at least one order of magnitude. Our system could provide a sensitive detection method for the global network of optical magnetometers to search for exotic physics.     

Viscoelasticity of dynamically self-assembled paramagnetic colloidal clusters

Paramagnetic particles in a liquid above a solid dynamically self-assemble into two-dimensional (2D) viscoelastic clusters in a processing magnetic field if the precession angle exceeds the magic angle. Hexagonal clusters rotate with a frequency proportional to the precession frequency of the magnetic field. The rotation is explained by viscoelastic shear waves excited in the clusters that can be visualized slightly above the magic angle. The cluster rotation and the visualization of viscoelastic modes are independent techniques to probe the rheological properties of the cluster. We find agreement between both techniques when determining the 2D cluster viscosity eta(c) approximately 10(-11) N s/m.     

Is there evidence for torsion?

Under the assumption of a pulsar's magnetic field originating from the net polarized spin of its neutrons, and by using the post-Newtonian approximated torsion in the fifth order in (v/c), the spin precession arising from torsion is coordinate dependent, which influences the magnetic field of the pulsar and makes the magnetic inclination close to the rotation axis. Assuming the possibility of the magnetic inclination density to be in random alignment at the initial time, our theoretical calculations show that most pulsars should have smaller inclinations at the age of 10⁶-10⁷ yr, and that the inclination decreases with the increasing age of the pulsar. This fits the theoretical calculations and astronomically observed distribution.This essay received an honorable mention in 1990 from the Gravity Research Foundation-Ed.     

Optical control of spin coherence in singly charged (In,Ga)As/GaAs quantum dots

Electron spin coherence has been generated optically in n-type modulation doped (In,Ga)As/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) which contain on average a single electron per dot. The coherence arises from resonant excitation of the QDs by circularly polarized laser pulses, creating a coherent superposition of an electron and a trion. Time dependent Faraday rotation is used to probe the spin precession of the optically oriented electrons about a transverse magnetic field. The coherence generation can be controlled by pulse intensity, being most efficient for (2n+1)pi pulses.     

Coherent optical control of the spin of a single hole in an InAs/GaAs quantum dot

We demonstrate coherent optical control of a single hole spin confined to an InAs/GaAs quantum dot. A superposition of hole-spin states is created by fast (10-100?ps) dissociation of a spin-polarized electron-hole pair. Full control of the hole spin is achieved by combining coherent rotations about two axes: Larmor precession of the hole spin about an external Voigt geometry magnetic field, and rotation about the optical axis due to the geometric phase shift induced by a picosecond laser pulse resonant with the hole-trion transition.     

Coherent spin precession of electrons and excitons in charge tunable InP quantum dots

Coherent spin precession of electrons and excitons is observed in charge tunable InP quantum dots under the transverse magnetic field by means of time-resolved Kerr rotation. In a quantum dot doped by one electron, spin precession of the doped electron in the quantum dot starts out of phase with spin precession of the doped electrons in a GaAs substrate just after a trion is formed and persists for more than 2 ns even after the trion recombines. Simultaneously spin precession of a trion (hole) starts. Observation of spin precession of both a doped electron and a trion (hole) confirms creating coherent superposition of an electron and a trion as the initialization process of spin of doped electrons in quantum dots. In a neutral quantum dot, the exciton spin precession starts out of phase with spin precession of the doped electrons in a GaAs substrate and the precession frequency does not converge to 0 at the zero field limit. It contains the electron–hole exchange interaction and corresponds to the splitting between bright and dark excitons under the transverse magnetic field.     

A nuclear-spin based rotation sensor using optical polarization and detection methods

We describe a rotation sensor that is based on the detection of the nuclear magnetic resonance signal of¹²⁹Xe in the gas phase. Under rotation shifts of the signal phase and Larmor frequency occur, which can be used to determine orientational angle variations with an accuracy of about 1^o and rotation rates of 0.4 mHz to 5 Hz with a precision of 0.4 mHz during the measurement time, which is of the order of 3×T ₂, the nuclear spin relaxation time. The nuclear spin species is polarized by spin-exchange collisions with optically pumped ground-state spins of Rb-gas atoms. The Rb atoms also present in the sample are used as a magnetometer to probe the free-induction decay of the nuclear spin ensemble. Polarization, detection, and data processing sheemes are described in detail and the current sensitivity and limitations of this Stuttgart nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) gyroscope are discussed. Possibilities for further improvements are pointed out.     

Optical generation of spin coherence in single-charged (In,Ga)As/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots

The generation of electron spin coherence has been studied in n-modulation-doped (In,Ga)As/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) which contain on average a single electron per dot. The doping has been confirmed by pump–probe Faraday rotation experiments in a magnetic field parallel to the heterostructure growth direction. For studying spin coherence, the magnetic field was rotated by 90° to the Voigt geometry, and the precession of the electron spin about the field was monitored. The coherence is generated by resonant excitation of the QDs with circularly polarized laser pulses, creating a coherent superposition of an electron, and a trion state. The efficiency of the generation can be controlled by the pulse intensity, being most efficient for (2n+1)π pulses.     

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.     

Spin precession and alternating spin polarization in spin-3/2 hole systems

The spin density matrix for spin-3/2 hole systems can be decomposed into a sequence of multipoles which has important higher-order contributions beyond the ones known for electron systems [R. Winkler, Phys. Rev. B 70, 125301 (2004)]. We show here that the hole spin polarization and the higher-order multipoles can precess due to the spin-orbit coupling in the valence band, yet in the absence of external or effective magnetic fields. Hole spin precession is important in the context of spin relaxation and offers the possibility of new device applications. We discuss this precession in the context of recent experiments and suggest a related experimental setup in which hole spin precession gives rise to an alternating spin polarization.