- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine
Access Provided by Xinjiang University

Physical Review Applied

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access
  • Access by Xinjiang University

Optically pumped vector magnetometer using a strong bias magnetic field

Thomas Schönau1,*, Theo Scholtes1,†, Florian Wittkämper1, Alexander Sekels2, Stefan Hiebel2, Gregor Oelsner1, and Ronny Stolz1

  • *Contact author: thomas.schoenau@leibniz-ipht.de
  • †Contact author: theo.scholtes@leibniz-ipht.de
PDF

Phys. Rev. Applied 23, 024006 – Published 4 February, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.23.024006

Abstract

We present an approach allowing an optically pumped magnetometer (OPM) to be operated within the Earth’s magnetic field as a vector magnetometer, the sensitive axis of which can be freely defined. This approach enables the measurement of any vector component of the Earth’s magnetic field with the same sensitivity. The OPM is realized by a microfabricated cesium-vapor cell with nitrogen buffer gas, which is immersed in a constant homogeneous bias field of approximately 730μT. Since this bias field is about one order of magnitude stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field, it defines the sensitive axis of the OPM. The bias field is generated by solid-state magnets and has been designed to exhibit a very low relative inhomogeneity (<±10−4 in relative units) within the vapor-cell dimensions as well as a point of vanishing temperature dependence at around 40∘C. The OPM utilizes the light-narrowing effect, which enables effective suppression of spin-exchange relaxation even in such a large magnetic field amplitude. Based on this implementation, we demonstrate a white-noise floor of below 60fT/Hz in the frequency interval between 100Hz and 600 Hz and a 3-dB sensor bandwidth of >5kHz. Our approach enables unshielded ultrasensitive vectorial measurement capabilities that are relevant in many important applications.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (60)

  1. M. Hämäläinen, R. Hari, R. J. Ilmoniemi, J. Knuutila, and O. V. Lounasmaa, Magnetoencephalography—theory, instrumentation, and applications to noninvasive studies of the working human brain, Rev. Mod. Phys. 65, 413 (1993).
  2. H. Koch, Recent advances in magnetocardiography, J. Electrocardiol. 37, 117 (2004).
  3. R. Hohmann, H.-J. Krause, H. Soltner, H. Zhang, C. Copetti, H. Bousack, A. Braginski, and M. Faley, HTS SQUID system with Joule-Thomson cryocooler for eddy current nondestructive evaluation of aircraft structures, IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 7, 2860 (1997).
  4. P. A. Koss, A. R. Durmaz, A. Blug, G. Laskin, O. S. Pawar, K. Thiemann, A. Bertz, T. Straub, and C. Elsässer, Optically pumped magnetometer measuring fatigue-induced damage in steel, Appl. Sci. 12, 1329 (2022).
  5. P. Sharma, Magnetic method applied to mineral exploration, Ore Geol. Rev. 2, 323 (1987).
  6. S. Billings, Discrimination and classification of buried unexploded ordnance using magnetometry, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens. 42, 1241 (2004).
  7. M. Munschy, D. Boulanger, P. Ulrich, and M. Bouiflane, Magnetic mapping for the detection and characterization of UXO: Use of multi-sensor fluxgate 3-axis magnetometers and methods of interpretation, J. Appl. Geophys. 61, 168 (2007), state-of-the-Art UXO Detection and Characterization.
  8. A. Clark, Seeing Beneath the Soil: Prospecting Methods in Archaeology (Batsford, London, 1990).
  9. J. W. Fassbinder, Seeing beneath the farmland, steppe and desert soil: Magnetic prospecting and soil magnetism, J. Archaeol. Sci. 56, 85 (2015), scoping the Future of Archaeological Science: Papers in Honour of Richard Klein.
  10. M. Schmelz, V. Zakosarenko, A. Chwala, T. Schönau, R. Stolz, S. Anders, S. Linzen, and H.-G. Meyer, Thin-film-based ultralow noise SQUID magnetometer, IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 26, 1 (2016).
  11. J. C. Allred, R. N. Lyman, T. W. Kornack, and M. V. Romalis, High-sensitivity atomic magnetometer unaffected by spin-exchange relaxation, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 130801 (2002).
  12. I. K. Kominis, T. W. Kornack, J. C. Allred, and M. V. Romalis, A subfemtotesla multichannel atomic magnetometer, Nature 422, 596 (2003).
  13. S. J. Seltzer and M. V. Romalis, Unshielded three-axis vector operation of a spin-exchange-relaxation-free atomic magnetometer, Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 4804 (2004).
  14. H. B. Dang, A. C. Maloof, and M. V. Romalis, Ultrahigh sensitivity magnetic field and magnetization measurements with an atomic magnetometer, Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 151110 (2010).
  15. S. Appelt, A. Ben-Amar Baranga, A. R. Young, and W. Happer, Light narrowing of rubidium magnetic-resonance lines in high-pressure optical-pumping cells, Phys. Rev. A 59, 2078 (1999).
  16. S. J. Smullin, I. M. Savukov, G. Vasilakis, R. K. Ghosh, and M. V. Romalis, Low-noise high-density alkali-metal scalar magnetometer, Phys. Rev. A 80, 033420 (2009).
  17. D. Sheng, S. Li, N. Dural, and M. V. Romalis, Subfemtotesla scalar atomic magnetometry using multipass cells, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 160802 (2013).
  18. M. Limes, E. Foley, T. Kornack, S. Caliga, S. McBride, A. Braun, W. Lee, V. Lucivero, and M. Romalis, Portable magnetometry for detection of biomagnetism in ambient environments, Phys. Rev. Appl. 14, 011002 (2020).
  19. G. Oelsner, R. IJsselsteijn, T. Scholtes, A. Krüger, V. Schultze, G. Seyffert, G. Werner, M. Jäger, A. Chwala, and R. Stolz, Integrated optically pumped magnetometer for measurements within Earth’s magnetic field, Phys. Rev. Appl. 17, 024034 (2022).
  20. W. Fourcault, R. Romain, G. L. Gal, F. Bertrand, V. Josselin, M. L. Prado, E. Labyt, and A. Palacios-Laloy, Helium-4 magnetometers for room-temperature biomedical imaging: Toward collective operation and photon-noise limited sensitivity, Opt. Express 29, 14467 (2021).
  21. M. N. Nabighian, ed., in Electromagnetic Methods in Applied Geophysics: Volume 2, Application, Parts A and B (Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1991), p. 427.
  22. A. J. Fairweather and M. J. Usher, A vector rubidium magnetometer, J. Phys. E: Sci. Instrum. 5, 986 (1972).
  23. W.-M. Sun, Q. Huang, Z.-J. Huang, P.-W. Wang, and J.-H. Zhang, All-optical vector cesium magnetometer, Chin. Phys. Lett. 34, 058501 (2017).
  24. S. Afach et al., Highly stable atomic vector magnetometer based on free spin precession, Opt. Express 23, 22108 (2015).
  25. H. Lee, M. Fleischhauer, and M. O. Scully, Sensitive detection of magnetic fields including their orientation with a magnetometer based on atomic phase coherence, Phys. Rev. A 58, 2587 (1998).
  26. K. Cox, V. I. Yudin, A. V. Taichenachev, I. Novikova, and E. E. Mikhailov, Measurements of the magnetic field vector using multiple electromagnetically induced transparency resonances in Rb vapor, Phys. Rev. A 83, 015801 (2011).
  27. S. Pustelny, W. Gawlik, S. M. Rochester, D. F. J. Kimball, V. V. Yashchuk, and D. Budker, Nonlinear magneto-optical rotation with modulated light in tilted magnetic fields, Phys. Rev. A 74, 063420 (2006).
  28. V. Acosta, M. P. Ledbetter, S. M. Rochester, D. Budker, D. F. Jackson Kimball, D. C. Hovde, W. Gawlik, S. Pustelny, J. Zachorowski, and V. V. Yashchuk, Nonlinear magneto-optical rotation with frequency-modulated light in the geophysical field range, Phys. Rev. A 73, 053404 (2006).
  29. L. Lenci, A. Auyuanet, S. Barreiro, P. Valente, A. Lezama, and H. Failache, Vectorial atomic magnetometer based on coherent transients of laser absorption in Rb vapor, Phys. Rev. A 89, 043836 (2014).
  30. E. B. Alexandrov, M. V. Balabas, V. N. Kulyasov, A. E. Ivanov, A. S. Pazgalev, J. L. Rasson, A. K. Vershovski, and N. N. Yakobson, Three-component variometer based on a scalar potassium sensor, Meas. Sci. Technol. 15, 918 (2004).
  31. A. K. Vershovskii, M. V. Balabas, A. E. Ivanov, V. N. Kulyasov, A. S. Pazgalev, and E. B. Aleksandrov, Fast three-component magnetometer-variometer based on a cesium sensor, Techn. Phys. 51, 112 (2006).
  32. J.-M. Leger, F. Bertrand, T. Jager, M. Le Prado, I. Fratter, and J.-C. Lalaurie, Swarm absolute scalar and vector magnetometer based on helium 4 optical pumping, Proc. Chem. 1, 634 (2009), proceedings of the Eurosensors XXIII conference.
  33. G. Hulot, P. Vigneron, J.-M. Léger, I. Fratter, N. Olsen, T. Jager, F. Bertrand, L. Brocco, O. Sirol, X. Lalanne, A. Boness, and V. Cattin, Swarm’s absolute magnetometer experimental vector mode, an innovative capability for space magnetometry, Geophys. Res. Lett. 42, 1352 (2015).
  34. G. Zhang, H. Zeng, R. Guo, Q. Zhang, W. Yu, and Q. Lin, Light-narrowed parametric resonance magnetometer with the fundamental sensitivity beyond the spin-exchange limit, Opt. Lett. 48, 4793 (2023).
  35. B. Patton, E. Zhivun, D. C. Hovde, and D. Budker, All-optical vector atomic magnetometer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 013001 (2014).
  36. F. Bertrand, T. Jager, A. Boness, W. Fourcault, G. Le Gal, A. Palacios-Laloy, J. Paulet, and J. M. Léger, A 4He vector zero-field optically pumped magnetometer operated in the Earth-field, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 92, 105005 (2021).
  37. T. Schönau, T. Scholtes, R. Stolz, and G. Oelsner, Vektorielles, optisch gepumptes Magnetometer mit einer hohen Empfindlichkeit (2024), DE102024101952.2.
  38. G. Breit and I. I. Rabi, Measurement of nuclear spin, Phys. Rev. 38, 2082 (1931).
  39. G. K. Woodgate, Elementary Atomic Structure (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1980).
  40. P. D. D. Schwindt, L. Hollberg, and J. Kitching, Self-oscillating rubidium magnetometer using nonlinear magneto-optical rotation, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 76, 126103 (2005).
  41. J. Hinkel, Master’s thesis, Optically pumped magnetometers for use in high background fields, Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau & University of Rome Tor Vergata.
  42. G. Bao, D. Kanta, D. Antypas, S. Rochester, K. Jensen, W. Zhang, A. Wickenbrock, and D. Budker, All-optical spin locking in alkali-metal-vapor magnetometers, Phys. Rev. A 105, 043109 (2022).
  43. V. Schultze, B. Schillig, R. IJsselsteijn, T. Scholtes, S. Woetzel, and R. Stolz, An optically pumped magnetometer working in the light-shift dispersed Mz mode, Sensors 17, 561 (2017).
  44. G. Oelsner, V. Schultze, R. IJsselsteijn, and R. Stolz, Performance analysis of an optically pumped magnetometer in Earth’s magnetic field, EPJ Quantum Technol. 6, 6 (2019).
  45. T. Scholtes, V. Schultze, R. IJsselsteijn, S. Woetzel, and H.-G. Meyer, Light-narrowed optically pumped Mx magnetometer with a miniaturized Cs cell, Phys. Rev. A 84, 043416 (2011).
  46. T. Scholtes, S. Pustelny, S. Fritzsche, V. Schultze, R. Stolz, and H.-G. Meyer, Suppression of spin-exchange relaxation in tilted magnetic fields within the geophysical range, Phys. Rev. A 94, 013403 (2016).
  47. D. Budker and D. F. Jackson Kimball, eds. Optical Magnetometry (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013).
  48. V. P. I. C. B. Alcock and M. K. Horrigan, Vapour pressure equations for the metallic elements: 298–2500K, Can. Metall. Q. 23, 309 (1984).
  49. V. Schultze, R. IJsselsteijn, and H.-G. Meyer, Noise reduction in optically pumped magnetometer assemblies, Appl. Phys. B 100, 717 (2010).
  50. W. E. Bell and A. L. Bloom, Optical detection of magnetic resonance in alkali metal vapor, Phys. Rev. 107, 1559 (1957).
  51. W. E. Bell and A. L. Bloom, Optically driven spin precession, Phys. Rev. Lett. 6, 280 (1961).
  52. Z. D. Grujić, P. A. Koss, G. Bison, and A. Weis, A sensitive and accurate atomic magnetometer based on free spin precession, Eur. Phys. J. D 69, 135 (2015).
  53. Z. D. Grujić, M. Ćurĉić, A. Kocić, A. Weis, and T. Scholtes, Phase projection errors in rf-driven optically pumped magnetometers, arXiv:2409.20446.
  54. B. S. Mathur, H. Tang, and W. Happer, Light shifts in the alkali atoms, Phys. Rev. 171, 11 (1968).
  55. G. Oelsner, V. Schultze, R. IJsselsteijn, F. Wittkämper, and R. Stolz, Sources of heading errors in optically pumped magnetometers operated in the Earth’s magnetic field, Phys. Rev. A 99, 013420 (2019).
  56. S. Woetzel, V. Schultze, R. IJsselsteijn, T. Schulz, S. Anders, R. Stolz, and H.-G. Meyer, Microfabricated atomic vapor cell arrays for magnetic field measurements, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 82, 033111 (2011).
  57. T. G. Walker and W. Happer, Spin-exchange optical pumping of noble-gas nuclei, Rev. Mod. Phys. 69, 629 (1997).
  58. R. Bjørk, The ideal dimensions of a Halbach cylinder of finite length, J. Appl. Phys. 109, 013915 (2011).
  59. Sekels GmbH, Dieselstrasse 6, 61239 Ober-Mörlen, Germany (https://sekels.de/).
  60. T. Schönau, Zenodo, Version V2, Dez. 19, 2024, http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14709938.

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Applied 23, 024006– Published 4 February, 2025
  • Received 19 August 2024
  • Revised 6 November 2024
  • Accepted 23 December 2024
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation