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Precise measurement of magnetic field gradients from free spin precession signals of 3He and 129Xe magnetometers

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Abstract

We report on precise measurements of magnetic field gradients extracted from transverse relaxation rates of precessing spin samples. The experimental approach is based on the free precession of gaseous, nuclear spin polarized 3He and 129Xe atoms in a spherical cell inside a magnetic guiding field of about 400 nT using LT C SQUIDs as low-noise magnetic flux detectors. The transverse relaxation rates of both spin species are simultaneously monitored as magnetic field gradients are varied. For transverse relaxation times reaching 100 h, the residual longitudinal field gradient across the spin sample could be deduced to be |∇ B z | = (5.6 ± 0.2) pT/cm. The method takes advantage of the high signal-to-noise ratio with which the decaying spin precession signal can be monitored that finally leads to the exceptional accuracy to determine magnetic field gradients at the sub pT/cm scale.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physikalisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität, Im Neuenheimer Feld 226, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    Fabian Allmendinger & Ulrich Schmidt

  2. Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Staudingerweg 7, 55099, Mainz, Germany

    Peter Blümler, Michael Doll, Werner Heil, Sergej Karpuk, Maricel Repetto, Yuri Sobolev, Kathlynne Tullney & Stefan Zimmer

  3. Van Swinderen Institute, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Groningen, Zernikelaan 25, 9747AA, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Olivier Grasdijk, Klaus Jungmann & Lorenz Willmann

  4. Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Wilhelm-Johnen-Straße, 52425, Jülich, Germany

    Hans-Joachim Krause & Andreas Offenhäusser

Authors
  1. Fabian Allmendinger
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  2. Peter Blümler
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  3. Michael Doll
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  4. Olivier Grasdijk
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  5. Werner Heil
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  6. Klaus Jungmann
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  7. Sergej Karpuk
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  8. Hans-Joachim Krause
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  9. Andreas Offenhäusser
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  10. Maricel Repetto
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  11. Ulrich Schmidt
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  12. Yuri Sobolev
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  13. Kathlynne Tullney
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  14. Lorenz Willmann
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  15. Stefan Zimmer
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Correspondence to Fabian Allmendinger.

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Allmendinger, F., Blümler, P., Doll, M. et al. Precise measurement of magnetic field gradients from free spin precession signals of 3He and 129Xe magnetometers. Eur. Phys. J. D 71, 98 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2017-70505-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2017-70505-4

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