Abstract
We propose an in-situ method to calibrate the coil constants of the optical atomic magnetometer. This method is based on measuring the Larmor precession of spin polarized alkali metal atoms and has been demonstrated on a K-Rb hybrid atomic magnetometer. Oscillation fields of different frequencies are swept on the transverse coil. By extracting the resonance frequency through phase-frequency analysis of electron spin projection, the coil constants are calibrated to be 323.1 ± 0.28 nT/mA, 108 ± 0.04 nT/Ma, and 185.8 ± 1.03 nT/mA along the X, Y, and Z directions, respectively.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
I. K. Kominis, T. W. Kornack, J. C. Allred, and M. V. Romalis, “A subfemtotesla multichannel atomic magnetometer,” Nature, 2003, 422(6932): 596–599.
J. C. Allred, R. N. Lyman, T. Kornack, and M. Romalis, “High-sensitivity atomic magnetometer unaffected by spin-exchange relaxation,” Physical Review Letters, 2002, 89(13): 130801–1–130801–4.
Y. Chen, W. Quan, L. H. Duan, Y. Lu, L. W. Jiang, and J. C. Fang, “Spin-exchange collision mixing of the K and Rb ac Stark shifts,” Physical Review A, 2016, 94(52): 052705–1–052705–6.
D. Sheng, S. Li, N. Dural, and M. Romalis, “Subfemtotesla scalar atomic magnetometry using multipass cells,” Physical Review Letters, 2013, 110(16): 160802–1–160802–5.
T. H. Sander, J. Preusser, R. Mhaskar, J. Kitching, L. Trahms, and S. Knappe, “Magnetoencephalography with a chip-scale atomic magnetometer,” Biomedical Optics Express, 2012, 3(5): 981–990.
R. Wyllie, M. Kauer, G. S. Smetana, R. T. Wakai, and T. G. Walker, “Magnetocardiography with a modular spin-exchange relaxation-free atomic magnetometer array,” Physics in Medicine & Biology, 2012, 57(9): 2619–2632.
T. Wang, D. F. J. Kimball, A. O. Sushkov, D. Aybas, J. W. Blanchard, G. Centers, et al., “Application of spin-exchange relaxation-free magnetometry to the cosmic axion spin precession experiment,” Physics of the Dark Universe, 2018, 19: 27–35.
J. M. Brown, “A new limit on Lorentz- and CPT-violating neutron spin interactions using a potassium-Helium comagnetometer,” Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA, 2011.
Z. C. Ding, J. Yuan, G. F. Lu, Y. Y. Li, and X. W. Long, “Three-axis atomic magnetometer employing longitudinal field modulation,” IEEE Photonics Journal, 2017, 9(5): 5300209–1–5300209–9.
H. C. Huang, H. F. Dong, X. Y. Hu, L. Chen, and Y. Gao, “Three-axis atomic magnetometer based on spin precession modulation,” Applied Physics Letters, 2015, 107(18): 227–234.
S. Afach, G. Ban, G. Bison, K. Bodek, Z. Chowdhuri, Z. Gruji´c, et al., “Highly stable atomic vector magnetometer based on free spin precession,” Optics Express, 2015, 23(17): 22108–1–22108–12.
H. F. Dong, H. B. Lin, and X. B. Tang, “Atomic-signal-based zero-field finding technique for unshielded atomic vector magnetometer,” IEEE Sensors Journal, 2013, 13(1): 186–189.
Z. M. Li, R. T. Wakai, and T. G. Walker, “Parametric modulation of an atomic magnetometer,” Applied Physics Letters, 2006, 89(13): 23575531–1–23575531–8.
S. J. Seltzer and M. Romalis, “Unshielded three-axis vector operation of a spin-exchange-relaxation-free atomic magnetometer,” Applied Physics Letters, 2004, 85(20): 4804–4806.
H. U. Auster, K. H. Glassmeier, W. Magnes, O. Aydogar, W. Baumjohann, D. D. Constantinescu, et al., “The THEMIS fluxgate magnetometer,” Space Science Reviews, 2008, 141(1–4): 235–264.
H. Zhang, S. Zou, and X. Y. Chen, “A method for calibrating coil constants by using an atomic spin co-magnetometer,” The European Physical Journal D, 2016, 70(10): 203–1–203–5.
L. L. Chen, B. Q. Zhou, G. Q. Lei, W. F. Wu, J. Wang, Y. Y. Zhai, et al., “A method for calibrating coil constants by using the free induction decay of noble gases,” AIP Advances, 2017, 7(7): 2227–2234.
Y. Li, M. Ding, X. J. Liu, H. W. Cai, J. P. Zhao, and J. C. Fang, “Suppression method of AC-stark shifts in atomic magnetometers,” IEEE Photonics Journal, 2018, 10(5): 5300207–1–5300207–5.
J. X. Lu, W. Quan, D. Ming, L. Qi, and J. C. Fang, “Suppression of light shift for high-density alkali-metal atomic magnetometer,” IEEE Sensors, 2018, 99: 2877771–1–2877771–5.
M. Romalis, “Hybrid optical pumping of optically dense alkali metal vapor without quenching gas,” Physical Review Letters, 2010, 105(24): 243001–1–243001–4.
Y. Ito, H. Ohnishi, K. Kamada, and T. Kobayashi, “Development of an optically pumped atomic magnetometer using a K-Rb hybrid cell and its application to magnetocardiography,” AIP Advances, 2012, 2(3): 032127–1–032127–4.
F. Bloch, W. W. Hansen, and M. E. Packard, “The nuclear induction experiment,” Physics Review, 1946, 70(7–8): 474–485.
S. Seltzer, “Developments in alkali metal atomic magnetometry,” Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA, 2008.
J. Fang, T. Wang, W. Quan, H. Yuan, Y. Li, H. Zhang, et al., “In situ magnetic compensation for potassium spin-exchange relaxation-free magnetometer considering probe beam pumping effect,” Review of Scientific Instruments, 2014, 85(6): 063108–1–063108–7.
L. L. Chen, B. Q. Zhou, G. Q. Lei, W. F. Wu, Y. Y. Zhai, Z. Wang, et al., “A method for measuring the spin polarization of 129Xe by using an atomic magnetometer,” AIP Advances, 2017, 7: 085221–1–085221–8.
Acknowledgement
This work received the support of the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFB0503100) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant No. 61227902). Both these two funding agencies give suggestions on selecting the critical technical problems and official financial help on the implementation of experiments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://doi.org/creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
About this article
Cite this article
Yao, H., Ma, D., Zhao, J. et al. A Coil Constant Calibration Method Based on the Phase-Frequency Response of Alkali Atomic Magnetometer. Photonic Sens 9, 189–196 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13320-019-0530-4
Received:
Revised:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13320-019-0530-4