A 85Rb transverse modulation magnetometer in the geophysical range based on atomic alignment states

Abstract

Abstract We have constructed a transverse modulated magnetometer based on spin alignment in a paraffin-coated 85 Rb cell operated in a geophysical magnetic field of 47.1 µT. When an orthogonal driving magnetic field ( x ^ axis) is resonant on the Larmor frequency ( z ^ axis), we have proposed a new method to zero the static residual magnetic fields in the transverse plane and achieved a sensitivity of 1.8   pT Hz − 1 with bandwidth of 200 Hz. The repump light ( F g = 2 → F e = 2 ) redistributes the populations in the ground state, rendering the state | F g = 2 ⟩ dark. This effect significantly amplifies the optical rotation signals nearly fourfold. The numerical solution of the Liouville equation is in good agreement with the experimental results. By using perturbation treatment and employing appropriate approximations, the derived analytical expressions for optical rotation are deduced to succinctly elucidate the dynamics of atomic alignment under parametric modulation. These outcomes could be extended for the advancement of an alignment magnetometer that has been designed to detect a weak magnetic signal in the geophysical range.