arXiv subjects

Kasper Jensen

Publications and source records attributed to Kasper Jensen.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Spin noise spectroscopy of an alignment-based atomic magnetometer

Optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs) are revolutionising the task of magnetic-field sensing due to their extremely high sensitivity combined with technological improvements in miniaturisation which have led to compact and portable devices. OPMs can be based on spin-oriented or spin-aligned atomic ensembles which are spin-polarized through optical pumping with circular or linear polarized light, respectively. Characterisation of OPMs and the dynamical properties of their noise is important for applications in real-time sensing tasks. In our work, we experimentally perform spin noise spectroscopy of an alignment-based magnetometer. Moreover, we propose a stochastic model that predicts the noise power spectra exhibited by the device when, apart from the strong magnetic field responsible for the Larmor precession of the spin, white noise is applied in the perpendicular direction aligned with the pumping-probing beam. By varying the strength of the noise applied as well as the linear-polarisation angle of incoming light, we verify the model to accurately predict the heights of the Larmor-induced spectral peaks and their corresponding line-widths. Our work paves the way for alignment-based magnetometers to become operational in real-time sensing tasks.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2023

High-Field Optical Cesium Magnetometer for Magnetic Resonance Imaging

We present a novel high-field optical quantum magnetometer based on saturated absorption spectroscopy on the extreme angular-momentum states of the cesium D2 line. With key features including continuous readout, high sampling rate, and sensitivity and accuracy in the ppm-range, it represents a competitive alternative to conventional techniques for measuring magnetic fields of several teslas. The prototype has four small separate field probes, and all support electronics and optics are fitted into a single 19-inch rack to make it compact, mobile, and robust. The field probes are fiber coupled and made from non-metallic components, allowing them to be easily and safely positioned inside a 7 T MRI scanner. We demonstrate the capabilities of this magnetometer by measuring two different MRI sequences, and we show how it can be used to reveal imperfections in the gradient coil system, to highlight the potential applications in medical MRI. We propose the term EXAAQ (EXtreme Angular-momentum Absorption-spectroscopy Quantum) magnetometry, for this novel method.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2023

Zero-field optical magnetometer based on spin-alignment

Optically-pumped magnetometers are an important instrument for imaging biological magnetic signals without the need for cryogenic cooling. These magnetometers are presently available in the commercial market and utilize the principles of atomic alignment or orientation, enabling remarkable sensitivity and precision in the measurement of magnetic fields. This research focuses on utilizing a spin-aligned atomic ensemble for magnetometry at zero-field. A novel approach is introduced, which involves evaluating how the linear polarization of light rotates as it passes through the atomic vapor to null the magnetic field. Analytical expressions are derived for the resulting spin alignment and photodetection signals. Experimental results are provided, demonstrating good agreement with the theoretical predictions. The sensitivity and bandwidth of the magnetometer are characterized based on the detected polarization rotation signal. Lastly, the practical utility of the magnetometer for medical applications is demonstrated by successfully detecting a synthetic cardiac signal.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2022

Small animal biomagnetism applications

The functioning of the human brain, nervous system and heart is based on the conduction of electrical signals. These electrical signals also create magnetic fields which extend outside the human body. Highly sensitive magnetometers, such as superconducting quantum interference device magnetometers or optically pumped magnetometers, placed outside the human body can detect these biomagnetic fields and provide non-invasive measurements of e.g. brain activity, nerve impulses, and cardiac activity. Animal models are used widely in medical research, including for disease diagnostics and for drugs testing. We review the topic of biomagnetic recordings on animal models using optically pumped magnetometers, and present our experiments on detecting nerve impulses in the frog sciatic nerve and the heart beat in an isolated guinea pig heart.

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2022

Precision Measurement of the Excited State Land\'e g-factor and Diamagnetic Shift of the Cesium D$_{2}$ Line

We have performed saturated absorption spectroscopy on the cesium D$_{2}$ line in 3 T and 7 T magnetic fields. By means of sideband spectroscopy on the extreme angular momentum states we have measured the linear magnetic frequency shift of the transition to be $\gamma_1 = 13.994\:301(11)$ GHz/T. This corresponds to an optical magnetic field measurement of better than 1 ppm accuracy. From this value we can calculate the fine structure Land\'e g-factor $g_J\left(6^2P_{3/2}\right) = 1.334\:087\:49(52)$. This is consistent with the previous best measurement, and improves the accuracy by more than two orders of magnitude. We have also measured, for the first time ever, the quadratic diamagnetic shift as $\gamma_2 = 0.4644(35)\:\mathrm{MHz/T^2}$. Our work opens up the field of accurate high field optical magnetometry using atomic cesium. These high accuracy measurements also allow for testing of advanced atomic structure models, as our results are incompatible with the Russel-Saunders coupling value, and the hydrogen-constant-core-model value, by 31 and 7 standard deviations respectively.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2022

Detection and characterisation of conductive objects using electromagnetic induction and a fluxgate magnetometer

Eddy currents induced in electrically conductive objects can be used to locate metallic objects as well as to assess the properties of materials non-destructively without physical contact. This technique is useful for material identification, such as measuring conductivity and for discriminating whether a sample is magnetic or non-magnetic. In this study, we carried out experiments and numerical simulations for the evaluation of conductive objects. We investigated the frequency dependence of the secondary magnetic field generated by induced eddy currents when a conductive object is placed in a primary oscillating magnetic field. According to the electromagnetic theory, conductive objects have different responses at different frequencies. Using a table-top setup consisting of a fluxgate magnetometer and a primary coil generating a magnetic field with frequency up to 1 kHz, we are able to detect aluminium and steel cylinders using the principle of electromagnetic induction. The experimental results are compared with numerical simulations and we find overall a good agreement. This technique enables identification and characterisation of objects using their electrical conductivity and magnetic permeability.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2021

A high performance active noise control system for magnetic fields

We present a system for active noise control (ANC) of environmental magnetic fields based on a Filtered-x Least Mean Squares (FxLMS) algorithm. The system consists of a sensor that detects the ambient field noise and an error sensor that measures the signal of interest contaminated with the noise. These signals are fed to an adaptive algorithm that constructs a physical anti-noise signal cancelling the local magnetic field noise. The proposed system achieves a maximum of 35 dB root-mean-square (RMS) noise suppression in the DC-1 kHz band and 50 dB and 40 dB amplitude suppression of 50 Hz and 150 Hz AC line noise respectively for all three axial directions of the magnetic vector field.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2019

Detection of low-conductivity objects using eddy current measurements with an optical magnetometer

Detection and imaging of an electrically conductive object at a distance can be achieved by inducing eddy currents in it and measuring the associated magnetic field. We have detected low-conductivity objects with an optical magnetometer based on room-temperature cesium atomic vapor and a noise-canceling differential technique which increased the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by more than three orders of magnitude. We detected small containers with a few mL of salt-water with conductivity ranging from 4-24 S/m with a good SNR. This demonstrates that our optical magnetometer should be capable of detecting objects with conductivity < 1 S/m with a SNR > 1 and opens up new avenues for using optical magnetometers to image low-conductivity biological tissue including the human heart which would enable non-invasive diagnostics of heart diseases.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2018

All-Optical Spin Locking in Alkali-Vapor Magnetometers

The nonlinear Zeeman effect can induce splittings and asymmetries of magnetic-resonance lines in the geophysical magnetic-field range. We demonstrate a scheme to suppress the nonlinear Zeeman effect all optically based on spin locking. Spin locking is achieved with an effective oscillating magnetic field provided by the AC Stark-shift of an intensity-modulated and polarization-modulated laser beam. This results in the collapse of the multi-component asymmetric magnetic-resonance line with about 100 Hz width in the Earth-field range into a peak with a central component width of 25Hz. The technique is expected to be broadly applicable in practical magnetometry, potentially boosting the sensitivity and accuracy of Earth-surveying magnetometers by increasing the magnetic-resonance amplitude and decreasing its width. Advantage of an all-optical approach is the absence of cross-talk between nearby sensors when these are used in a gradiometric or in an array arrangement.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2018

Magnetocardiography on an isolated animal heart with a room-temperature optically pumped magnetometer

Optically pumped magnetometers are becoming a promising alternative to cryogenically-cooled superconducting magnetometers for detecting and imaging biomagnetic fields. Magnetic field detection is a completely non-invasive method, which allows one to study the function of excitable human organs with a sensor placed outside the human body. For instance, magnetometers can be used to detect brain activity or to study the activity of the heart. We have developed a highly sensitive miniature optically pumped magnetometer based on cesium atomic vapor kept in a paraffin-coated glass container. The magnetometer is optimized for detection of biological signals and has high temporal and spatial resolution. It is operated at room- or human body temperature and can be placed in contact with or at a mm-distance from a biological object. With this magnetometer, we detected the heartbeat of an isolated guinea-pig heart, which is an animal widely used in biomedical studies. In our recordings of the magnetocardiogram, we can in real-time observe the P-wave, QRS-complex and T-wave associated with the cardiac cycle. We also demonstrate that our device is capable of measuring the cardiac electrographic intervals, such as the RR- and QT-interval, and detecting drug-induced prolongation of the QT-interval, which is important for medical diagnostics.

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2017

Miniature cavity-enhanced diamond magnetometer

We present a highly sensitive miniaturized cavity-enhanced room-temperature magnetic-field sensor based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. The magnetic resonance signal is detected by probing absorption on the 1042\,nm spin-singlet transition. To improve the absorptive signal the diamond is placed in an optical resonator. The device has a magnetic-field sensitivity of 28 pT/$\sqrt{\rm{Hz}}$, a projected photon shot-noise-limited sensitivity of 22 pT/$\sqrt{\rm{Hz}}$ and an estimated quantum projection-noise-limited sensitivity of 0.43 pT/$\sqrt{\rm{Hz}}$ with the sensing volume of $\sim$ 390 $μ$m $\times$ 4500 $μ$m$^{2}$. The presented miniaturized device is the basis for an endoscopic magnetic field sensor for biomedical applications.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Quantum back action evading measurement of motion in a negative mass reference frame

Quantum mechanics dictates that a continuous measurement of the position of an object imposes a random back action perturbation on its momentum. This randomness translates with time into position uncertainty, thus leading to the well known uncertainty on the measurement of motion. Here we demonstrate that the quantum back action on a macroscopic mechanical oscillator measured in the reference frame of an atomic spin oscillator can be evaded. The collective quantum measurement on this novel hybrid system of two distant and disparate oscillators is performed with light. The mechanical oscillator is a drum mode of a millimeter size dielectric membrane and the spin oscillator is an atomic ensemble in a magnetic field. The spin oriented along the field corresponds to an energetically inverted spin population and realizes an effective negative mass oscillator, while the opposite orientation corresponds to a positive mass oscillator. The quantum back action is evaded in the negative mass setting and is enhanced in the positive mass case. The hybrid quantum system presented here paves the road to entanglement generation and distant quantum communication between mechanical and spin systems and to sensing of force, motion and gravity beyond the standard quantum limit.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Non-invasive detection of animal nerve impulses with an atomic magnetometer operating near quantum limited sensitivity

Magnetic fields generated by human and animal organs, such as the heart, brain and nervous system carry information useful for biological and medical purposes. These magnetic fields are most commonly detected using cryogenically-cooled superconducting magnetometers. Here we present the frst detection of action potentials from an animal nerve using an optical atomic magnetometer. Using an optimal design we are able to achieve the sensitivity dominated by the quantum shot noise of light and quantum projection noise of atomic spins. Such sensitivity allows us to measure the nerve impulse with a miniature room-temperature sensor which is a critical advantage for biomedical applications. Positioning the sensor at a distance of a few millimeters from the nerve, corresponding to the distance between the skin and nerves in biological studies, we detect the magnetic field generated by an action potential of a frog sciatic nerve. From the magnetic field measurements we determine the activity of the nerve and the temporal shape of the nerve impulse. This work opens new ways towards implementing optical magnetometers as practical devices for medical diagnostics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Generation of a squeezed state of an oscillator by stroboscopic back-action-evading measurement

Continuous observation on an oscillator is known to result in quantum back-action which limits the knowledge acquired by the measurement. A careful balance between the information obtained and the back-action disturbance leads to a limit known as the standard quantum limit. The means to surpass this limit by modulating the measurement strength with the period proportional to half period of the oscillation has been proposed decades ago (Braginskii et al 1978 JETP Lett. 27 276; Thorne et al 1978 Phys. Rev. Lett. 40 667; Braginskii et al 1980 Science 209 547). Such modulated or stroboscopic observation leading to a squeezed state of one quadrature of the oscillator motion with the quantum noise below that of the zero-point fluctuations has been a long-standing goal. Here, we report on the generation of a quadrature-squeezed state of an oscillator by stroboscopic back-action evading measurement. The oscillator is the collective spin of an atomic ensemble precessing in magnetic field. It is initially prepared in nearly the ground state with an average thermal occupancy number $0.08 \pm 0.01$. The oscillator is coupled to the optical mode of a cavity, and the cavity output field detected with polarization homodyning serves as the meter. A back-action-evading measurement is performed by stroboscopically modulating the intensity of the light field at twice the Larmor frequency, resulting in a squeezed state conditioned on the light-polarization measurement with $2.2 \pm 0.3$ dB noise reduction below the zero-point fluctuations for the measured quadrature. The demonstrated squeezing holds promise for metrological advantage in quantum sensing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Sidebands in Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance Signals of Nitrogen Vacancy Centers in Diamond

We study features in the optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) signals associated with negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers coupled to other paramagnetic impurities in diamond. Our results are important for understanding ODMR line shapes and for optimization of devices based on NV centers. We determine the origins of several side features to the unperturbed NV magnetic resonance by studying their magnetic field and microwave power dependences. Side resonances separated by around 130 MHz are due to hyperfine coupling between NV centers and nearest-neighbor C-13 nuclear spins. Side resonances separated by approximately {40, 260, 300} MHz are found to originate from simultaneous spin flipping of NV centers and single substitutional nitrogen atoms. All results are in agreement with the presented theoretical calculations.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2013

Electromagnetically-induced transparency in a diamond spin ensemble enables all-optical electromagnetic field sensing

We use electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) to probe the narrow electron-spin resonance of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond. Working with a multi-pass diamond chip at temperatures 6-30 K, the zero-phonon absorption line (637 nm) exhibits an optical depth of 6 and inhomogenous linewidth of ~30 GHz full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM). Simultaneous optical excitation at two frequencies separated by the ground-state zero-field splitting (2.88 GHz), reveals EIT resonances with a contrast exceeding 6% and FWHM down to 0.4 MHz. The resonances provide an all-optical probe of external electric and magnetic fields with a projected photon-shot-noise-limited sensitivity of 0.2 V/cm/sqrt(Hz) and 0.1 nT/sqrt(Hz), respectively. Operation of a prototype diamond-EIT magnetometer measures a noise floor of less than 1 nT/sqrt(Hz) for frequencies above 10 Hz and Allan deviation of 1.3 +/- 1.1 nT for 100 s intervals. The results demonstrate the potential of diamond-EIT devices for applications ranging from quantum-optical memory to few-photon nonlinear optics, precision measurement, and tests of fundamental physics.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2013

Magnetometry with nitrogen-vacancy ensembles in diamond based on infrared absorption in a doubly resonant optical cavity

We propose to use an optical cavity to enhance the sensitivity of magnetometers relying on the detection of the spin state of high-density nitrogen-vacancy ensembles in diamond using infrared optical absorption. The role of the cavity is to obtain a contrast in the absorption-detected magnetic resonance approaching unity at room temperature. We project an increase in the photon shot-noise limited sensitivity of two orders of magnitude in comparison with a single-pass approach. Optical losses can limit the enhancement to one order of magnitude which could still enable room temperature operation. Finally, the optical cavity also allows to use smaller pumping power when it is designed to be resonant at both the pump and the signal wavelength.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2012

Gyroscopes based on nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond

We propose solid-state gyroscopes based on ensembles of negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (${\rm NV^-}$) centers in diamond. In one scheme, rotation of the nitrogen-vacancy symmetry axis will induce Berry phase shifts in the ${\rm NV^{-}}$ electronic ground-state coherences proportional to the solid angle subtended by the symmetry axis. We estimate sensitivity in the range of $5\times10^{-3} {\rm rad/s/\sqrt{Hz}}$ in a 1 ${\rm mm^3}$ sensor volume using a simple Ramsey sequence. Incorporating dynamical decoupling to suppress dipolar relaxation may yield sensitivity at the level of $10^{-5} {\rm rad/s/\sqrt{Hz}}$. With a modified Ramsey scheme, Berry phase shifts in the ${\rm ^{14}N}$ hyperfine sublevels would be employed. The projected sensitivity is in the range of $10^{-5} {\rm rad/s/\sqrt{Hz}}$, however the smaller gyromagnetic ratio reduces sensitivity to magnetic-field noise by several orders of magnitude. Reaching $10^{-5} {\rm rad/s/\sqrt{Hz}}$ would represent an order of magnitude improvement over other compact, solid-state gyroscope technologies.

physics.atom-ph↗