English

All-Optical Vector Atomic Magnetometer

Atomic Physics 2015-06-19 v1 Instrumentation and Detectors

Abstract

We demonstrate an all-optical magnetometer capable of measuring the magnitude and direction of a magnetic field using nonlinear magneto-optical rotation in a cesium vapor. Vector capability is added by effective modulation of the field along orthogonal axes and subsequent demodulation of the magnetic-resonance frequency. This modulation is provided by the AC Stark shift induced by circularly polarized laser beams. The sensor exhibits a demonstrated rms noise floor of 50 fT/Hz^(1/2) in measurement of the field magnitude and 0.5 mrad/Hz^(1/2) in the field direction; elimination of technical noise would improve these sensitivities to 12 fT/Hz^(1/2) and 5 microrad/Hz^(1/2), respectively. Applications for a precise all-optical vector magnetometer would include magnetically sensitive fundamental physics experiments, such as the search for a permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1403.7545,
  title  = {All-Optical Vector Atomic Magnetometer},
  author = {B. Patton and E. Zhivun and D. C. Hovde and D. Budker},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1403.7545},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

5 pages, 4 figures Supplemental Material: 3 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-06-22T03:37:44.391Z