Zero-field magnetometry based on the combination of atomic orientation and alignment

Abstract

Optically pumped magnetometers usually rely on optical pumping using circularly- or linearly-polarized light. We study here zero-field magnetometers pumped with elliptically-polarized light, preparing both atomic orientation and alignment with complementary geometries. We start by extending the "three-step approach" for elliptically-polarized pumping. This allows us studying the Hanle effect in elliptical polarization by comparing the analytical absorption signals with experiments made on helium-4 metastable state. We then study parametric resonance magnetometers based on elliptical polarization by using the dressed-atom formalism with one and two radio-frequency fields. The results show a good agreement with the experimental measurements and open interesting perspectives for magnetometry where symmetry breaking by pumping light is mitigated.

References in corpus (8)

• Resonant nonlinear magneto-optical effects in atoms
• High Bandwidth Atomic Magnetometery with Continuous Quantum Non-demolition Measurements
• Optical Magnetometer Array for Fetal Magnetocardiography
• Generation of a squeezed state of an oscillator by stroboscopic back-action-evading measurement
• Theory of double resonance magnetometers based on atomic alignment
• An optically modulated zero-field atomic magnetometer with suppressed spin-exchange broadening
• Parametric resonance magnetometer based on elliptically polarized light yielding three-axis measurement with isotropic sensitivity
• Harmonic fine tuning and triaxial spatial anisotropy of dressed atomic spins

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Zero-field optical magnetometer based on spin-alignment
• Level-crossing resonances on open atomic transitions in a buffered Cs vapor cell: Linewidth narrowing, high contrast and applications to atomic magnetometry
• Anomalous suppression of spin-exchange relaxation in alignment signals in cesium in ultra-weak magnetic fields
• Linear dichroism signals due to the alignment in the ground state of hydrogen-like atoms and their inversion in a single-beam optical pumping scheme
• Atomic magnetometry based on the ground-state Hanle effect in an elliptically polarized light wave