Abstract
Electrical heating elements, which are widely used to heat the vapor cell of ultrasensitive atomic magnetometers, inevitably produce a magnetic field interference. In this paper, we propose a novel measurement method of the amplitude of electrical-heating-induced magnetic field for an atomic magnetometer. In contrast to conventional methods, this method can be implemented in the atomic magnetometer itself without the need for extra magnetometers. It can distinguish between different sources of magnetic fields sensed by the atomic magnetometer, and measure the three-axis components of the magnetic field generated by the electrical heater and the temperature sensor. The experimental results demonstrate that the measurement uncertainty of the heater’s magnetic field is less than 0.2 nT along the x-axis, 1.0 nT along the y-axis, and 0.4 nT along the z-axis. The measurement uncertainty of the temperature sensor’s magnetic field is less than 0.02 nT along all three axes. This method has the advantage of measuring the in-situ magnetic field, so it is especially suitable for miniaturized and chip-scale atomic magnetometers, where the cell is extremely small and in close proximity to the heater and the temperature sensor.
Highlights
Atomic magnetometers have been used in a wide range of applications to detect weak magnetic fields, such as magnetoencephalography (MEG) [1,2,3], magnetocardiography (MCG) [4,5,6], and the search for new physics [7,8]
We propose a novel method for in-situ measurement of the amplitude of the three-axis magnetic field generated by the heater and the temperature sensor for a spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) atomic magnetometer based on the magnetic field zeroing technique
The heater and temperature sensor-generated magnetic fields owing to the driving currents through them, which were sensed by the atomic spins in the cell
Summary
Atomic magnetometers have been used in a wide range of applications to detect weak magnetic fields, such as magnetoencephalography (MEG) [1,2,3], magnetocardiography (MCG) [4,5,6], and the search for new physics [7,8]. There are essentially three kinds of heating techniques used for SERF atomic magnetometers, as well as other sensitive atomic sensors: hot air heating [15,16,17,18], optical heating [4,19,20,21] and electrical heating [9,22,23,24,25]. Among these heating techniques, electrical heating is most flexible and efficient, and Sensors 2020, 20, 1826; doi:10.3390/s20071826 www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors
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