Parametric resonance magnetometer based on elliptically polarized light yielding three-axis measurement with isotropic sensitivity

Abstract

We present here a new parametric resonance magnetometer scheme based on elliptically polarized pumping light and two radio-frequency fields applied along the two optical pumping directions. At optimum ellipticity and radio-frequency fields amplitudes the three components of the magnetic field are measured with an isotropic sensitivity. Compared to the usual alignment-based parametric resonance magnetometers, the sensitivity is degraded by a factor 2 for two components of the magnetic field but improved by a factor 11 for the third one. This new magnetometer configuration could be particularly interesting for geophysics and biomedical imaging.