Metasurface enabled on-chip double-beam scheme for SERF atomic magnetometer

Chip-scale optics for atomic magnetometry

“…In reality, the transmission efficiency of the metasurface structure may vary with the incident angle and the wavelength as it has been reported in earlier works [15]. These deviations are significant considerations in an OPM, which may have axial misalignments between an input beam and the atomic cell and sometimes rely on multi-wavelength (e.g., D1 and D2 lines of Rb transitions) pump and probe beams.…”

“…In this section, we evaluate how the optical performance of our proposed metasurface PBS affects balanced polarimetry and thereby the sensitivity and accuracy of an OPM. Our PBS design can is compatible with millimeter-scale, microfabricated Rb cells involving separate non-parallel [15] or inline pump and probe beams. For reasons specified in Section 1, we focus on the magnetometry schemes that are compatible with inline pump-probe configurations such as the Mx [30], Bell-Bloom [31], SERF [32], and nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (NMOR) [33] OPMs.…”

“…While breakthroughs in microfabricated vapor cells [9] have enabled the miniaturization of OPMs and their integration with chip-scale photonic technologies such as VCSELs [2,10], state-of-theart OPMs based on balanced polarimetry detection mostly utilize bulk birefringent polarization optics such as waveplates and polarizing beam splitters which still limit the sensor volume, scalability, and their use in many portable applications [11][12][13]. More recently, various schemes have been proposed [14,15] and experimentally demonstrated [16,17] to further integrate OPMs with nanophotonic components, but the performance limits of nanophotonic-integrated OPMs are still being explored.…”

Application of VCSEL in Bio-Sensing Atomic Magnetometers

“…In addition, emerging technologies are promoting the performance of VCSELs of this kind, such as the integration of metasurfaces that enables further reduction in size with wavefront control, improvement of noise suppression methods in pursuit of improved sensitivity, novel CMOS compatible techniques that facilitate mass production, etc. In conventional practice, the most economical and efficient way to control the mode and polarization of VCSELs (in biosensing magnetometers) is surface grating etching, while emerging studies bring attractive features to VCSELs, namely integrated polarization splitting or integration [ 120 ] with metalens [ 150 , 151 ].…”

A Miniaturized Spin‐Exchange Relaxation‐Free Atomic Magnetometer Array Based on a 1 × 8 Planar Lightwave Circuit Waveguide Splitter

“…[1][2][3][4] Recently, spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) atomic magnetometers, which rely on the interaction between magnetism, light, and atoms, have achieved ultrahigh sensitivity on the order of fT Hz −1/2 within low-frequency ranges, which has attracted significant research efforts in various fields, including electric dipole moment measurement, [5] verification of charge parity-time symmetry breaking, and exploration of abnormal interactions. [6,7] Recent developments in SERF atomic magnetometers have focused on creating more integrated mobile prototypes, [8,9] eliminating the need for cryogenic cooling equipment. Miniaturized atomic magnetometer array (AMA) plays a crucial role in scientific research, biomedicine, and industrial production.…”