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PUBLICATIONS

Self-Oscillating Rubidium Magnetometer using Nonlinear Magneto-Optical Rotation

Published

Author(s)

P Schwindt, Leo W. Hollberg, John E. Kitching

Abstract

The detection of nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (NMOR) of polarized light through alkali atomic vapor is a highly sensitive technique for measuring magnetic fields. We demonstrate that when using frequency modulated light to excite the NMOR resonance, it is possible to cause the system to self oscillate. The NMOR signal is not a simple replication of the sine wave modulation of the light, but rather contains many higher harmonics of the modulation frequency, and we implement two ways of processing the signal to recover the fundamental modulation frequency in the feedback loop and induce self oscillation. Self oscillation greatly simplifies and reduces the power consumption of the electronics required to operate a magnetometer making the NMOR technique more attractive for commercialized magnetic sensors.
Citation
Review of Scientific Instruments
Volume
76
Issue
126103
Pub Type
Journals

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

atomic spectroscopy, magneto-optical rotation, magnetometry

Citation

Schwindt, P. , Hollberg, L. and Kitching, J. (2005), Self-Oscillating Rubidium Magnetometer using Nonlinear Magneto-Optical Rotation, Review of Scientific Instruments, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=50155 (Accessed October 20, 2025)

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Created December 14, 2005, Updated February 17, 2017
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