Alignment-based optically pumped magnetometer using a buffer gas cell

Abstract

Alignment-based optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs) are capable of measuring oscillating magnetic fields with high sensitivity in the fT/sqrt(Hz) range. Until now, alignment-based magnetometers have only used paraffin-coated vapour cells to extend the spin relaxation lifetimes of the alkali vapour. The drawback of these cells is that they are hand-blown and are therefore time-intensive, and somewhat unreliable, to produce. Buffer gas cells, on the other hand, can be manufactured on a mass scale using microfabrication techniques. We present the first demonstration of an alignment-based magnetometer using a buffer gas vapour cell containing caesium (Cs) alkali vapour and nitrogen (N2) buffer gas. The OPM is operated at 55 degrees C and we achieve a 325 fT/sqrt(Hz) sensitivity to 10 kHz oscillating magnetic fields with an 800 Hz bandwidth. The alignment-based magnetometer uses a single laser beam for optical pumping and probing and could potentially allow for more rapid commercialisation of radio-frequency OPMs, due to the robustness of the one-beam geometry and the potential for mass-scale microfabrication of buffer gas cells.

arXiv comment10 pages, 7 figures

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Zero-field optical magnetometer based on spin-alignment
• Spin noise spectroscopy of an alignment-based atomic magnetometer
• Correcting heading errors in optically pumped magnetometers through microwave interrogation
• Investigating the hyperfine systematic error and relative phase in low spin-polarization alkali FID magnetometers
• Polarisation of radio-frequency magnetic fields in magnetic induction measurements with an atomic magnetometer
• Atomic magnetometry based on the ground-state Hanle effect in an elliptically polarized light wave