Dual-frequency cesium spin maser

Abstract

Co-magnetometers have been validated as valuable components of the atomic physics toolbox in fundamental and applied physics. So far, the explorations have been focused on systems involving nuclear spins. Presented here is a demonstration of an active alkali-metal (electronic) system, i.e. a dual frequency spin maser operating with the collective caesium F=3 and F=4 spins. The experiments have been conducted in both magnetically shielded and unshielded environments. In addition to the discussion of the system's positive feedback mechanism, the implementation of the dual frequency spin maser for industrial non-destructive testing is shown. The stability of the F=3 and F=4 spin precession frequency ratio measurement is limited at the $3 \times 10^{-8}$ level, by the laser frequency drift, corresponding to a frequency stability of 1.2 mHz for $10^4$ sec integration time. We discuss measurement strategies that could improve this stability to nHz, enabling measurements with sensitivities to the axion-nucleon and axion-electron interactions at the levels of $f_a/C_N \sim 10^9$ GeV and $f_a/C_e \sim 10^8$ GeV, respectively.