Abstract
Reducing the transverse relaxation rate of alkali atoms is crucial to improve the sensitivity of the magnetometers. In a perturbative treatment of the effects of the magnetic-field gradients, the transverse relaxation rates of alkali atoms are predicted to be proportional to the square of the longitudinal magnetic-field gradient. The theoretical predictions are confirmed in our experiments. The magnetic-field gradients in the vapor cell are measured by experiments. The magnetic-field gradient in the cell is suppressed drastically through compensating it with the compensation coils. Experimental results show that suppressing the magnetic-field gradient can reduce the transverse relaxation rate of alkali atoms significantly. This study contributes to the development of ultra-high sensitivity alkali atomic magnetometers.
Highlights
Recent developments in the technology of atomic magnetometer have enabled it become one of the most sensitive devices for detecting and measuring magnetic field
In order to improve the sensitivity of magnetometers, the transverse relaxation rate of alkali atoms must be minimized
Spin-destruction collisions and spin-exchange collisions are the main mechanisms which relax the spin of alkali atoms
Summary
Recent developments in the technology of atomic magnetometer have enabled it become one of the most sensitive devices for detecting and measuring magnetic field. With a high buffer gas pressure, the alkali atoms move slowly inside the cell, the magnetic field gradient causes additional relaxation,[8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15] which can’t be ignored. The transverse relaxation rate γ here refers to the relaxation causes by spin diffusion and magnetic-field gradient. With a high buffer gas pressure, the transverse relaxation rate scares as the square of the longitudinal magnetic-field gradient, just as Equation (6) indicates. For an optical pumping magnetometer, the spin-exchange relaxation, the spin-destruction relaxation, and the optical pumping relaxation are non-negligible Since they have no dependence on the magnetic-field gradient, it’s reasonably to treat the relaxation causes by the above mechanisms. Parameter c characterizes the relaxation caused by spin-destruction collisions, spin-exchange collisions, optical pumping, and so on
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