A Low-Noise High-Density Alkali Metal Scalar Magnetometer
Abstract
We present an experimental and theoretical study of a scalar atomic magnetometer using an oscillating field-driven Zeeman resonance in a high-density optically-pumped potassium vapor. We describe an experimental implementation of an atomic gradiometer with a noise level below 10 fT/Hz^{1/2}, fractional field sensitivity below 10^{-9}/Hz^{1/2}, and an active measurement volume of about 1.5 cm^3. We show that the fundamental field sensitivity of a scalar magnetometer is determined by the rate of alkali-metal spin-exchange collisions even though the resonance linewidth can be made much smaller than the spin-exchange rate by pumping most atoms into a stretched spin state.
Cite
@article{arxiv.physics/0611085,
title = {A Low-Noise High-Density Alkali Metal Scalar Magnetometer},
author = {S. J. Smullin and I. M. Savukov and G. Vasilakis and R. K. Ghosh and M. V. Romalis},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0611085},
year = {2013}
}
Comments
10 pages, 7 figures. Version 2 is longer, with more complete description of theoretical analysis and comparison between analytical and experimental results