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arXiv · 1208.1099

Sub-femtotesla scalar atomic magnetometer using multipass cells

D. Sheng·S. Li·N. Dural·M. V. Romalis
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Abstract

Scalar atomic magnetometers have many attractive features but their sensitivity has been relatively poor. We describe a Rb scalar gradiometer using two multi-pass optical cells. We use a pump-probe measurement scheme to suppress spin-exchange relaxation and two probe pulses to find the spin precession zero crossing times with a resolution of 1 psec. We realize magnetic field sensitivity of 0.54 fT/Hz$^{1/2}$, which improves by an order of magnitude the best scalar magnetometer sensitivity and surpasses the quantum limit set by spin-exchange collisions for a scalar magnetometer with the same measurement volume operating in a continuous regime.

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D. Sheng, S. Li, N. Dural, M. V. Romalis. 2012-08-06. Sub-femtotesla scalar atomic magnetometer using multipass cells. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.110.160802

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