Sensitivity Comparison of Mx and Frequency Modulated Bell-Bloom Cs Magnetometers in a Micro-Fabricated Cell

Published

February 1, 2010

Author(s)

Ricardo Jimenez Martinez, William C. Griffith, Ying-ju Wang, Svenja A. Knappe, John E. Kitching, Ken Smith, Mark Prouty

Abstract

We compare the sensitivity performance of two optically pumped atomic magnetometers based on the Mx and frequency-modulated Bell-Bloom configurations. The Cs magnetometers are implemented using a millimeter-scale microfabricated vapor cell in a configuration in which a single laser beam serves as both pump and probe. It is found that the single-beam Bell-Bloom magnetometer yields sensitivities similar to those of the Mx magnetometer when operated under the same optimized conditions. The Bell-Bloom approach offers several attractive features over the Mx approach for chip-scale magnetometer-instrumentation.

Citation

IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement

Volume

59

Issue

2

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

chip-scale atomic magnetometer, frequency modulated light, micro-fabricated vapor cell, optically pumped atomic magnetometer, vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL)

Citation

Jimenez, R. , Griffith, W. , Wang, Y. , Knappe, S. , Kitching, J. , Smith, K. and Prouty, M. (2010), Sensitivity Comparison of Mx and Frequency Modulated Bell-Bloom Cs Magnetometers in a Micro-Fabricated Cell, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=842606 (Accessed October 10, 2025)