Hodby, E.
, Donley, E.
and Kitching, J.
(2007),
Differential Atomic Magnetometry Based on a Diverging Laser Beam, Physical Review Letters, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=50501
(Accessed December 13, 2024)
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Differential Atomic Magnetometry Based on a Diverging Laser Beam
Published
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Abstract
We demonstrate a novel atomic magnetometer that uses differential detection of the spatially diverging components of a light field to monitor the Larmor precession frequency of atoms in a thermal vapor. The design is implemented in compact form with a micromachined alkali vapor cell and a naturally divergent light field emitted by a vertical cavity surface emitting laser, which serves to both optically pump the atoms and measure the transverse polarization. Operating the magnetometer in differential mode cancels common-mode noise and improves the sensitivity by a factor of 26 over single-channel operation. We also suggest ways in which the current sensitivity of 28\,pT/$\surd$Hz may be improved further without sacrificing size or simplicity.Citation
Physical Review Letters
Volume
91
Issue
011109
Pub Type
Journals
Download Paper
Keywords
alkali atoms, atomic magnetometer, chip scale devices, differential detection, diverging beam, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), optical pumping
Citation
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Created July 3, 2007, Updated February 17, 2017