Magnetometry with millimeter-scale antirelaxation-coated alkali-metal vapor cells

Abstract

Dynamic nonlinear magneto-optical-rotation signals with frequency-and amplitude-modulated laser light have been observed and investigated with a spherical glass cell of 3-mm diameter containing Cs metal with inner walls coated with paraffin. Intrinsic Zeeman relaxation rates of γ/(2π) ≈ 20 Hz and lower have been observed. Favorable prospects of using millimeter-scale coated cells in portable magnetometers and secondary frequency references are discussed.

Optical magnetometry

“…Miniaturization of the vapor cells to millimeter scales can be done using more or less standard techniques (see, for example, Ref. [55] for a description of a prototype optical-rotation magnetometer using a 3-mm diameter paraffin-coated Cs cell). Another approach, particularly appealing for future mass production of miniaturized lowcost magnetometers, is manufacturing of an integrated sensor package incorporating a VCSEL laser, an alkalivapor cell, optics, and a detector using the wafer production techniques well developed by the semi-conductor industry.…”

Chip-scale atomic devices

“…While small cells can be fabricated with the method described above, 63,112 there are several significant detracting features. One is that the cells must be made one by one; fabricating large numbers of cells therefore takes considerable time.…”

Electromagnetically induced transparency‐based slow and stored light in warm atoms

“…An EIT linewidth as narrow as 1 Hz has been realized in such paraffin-coated cells (no buffer gas) [34]; and recent improvements in coating materials have enabled coherence lifetimes as long as a minute [82,83]. Coated cells are actively being used for magnetometer [84], atomic clock [85], and quantum optics [86][87][88] applications. In comparison to buffer gas cells, coated cells do not suffer from collisional decoherence of excited states due to the buffer gas, which destroys quantum correlations in heralded photon generation experiments [89].…”