Deng L. Theory of colliding-probe atomic magnetometry: breaking the symmetry-enforced magneto-optical rotation blockade.
OPTICS EXPRESS 2022;
30:44218-44228. [PMID:
36523101 DOI:
10.1364/oe.474738]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2022] [Accepted: 11/02/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
We show theoretically the presence of an optical field polarization rotation blocking mechanism in single-probe-based magnetic field sensing schemes, revealing the root cause for extremely small nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (NMOR) signal in single-probe-based atomic magnetometers. We present a colliding-probe atomic magnetometer theory, analytically describing the principle of the first nonlinear-optical atomic magnetometer. This new atomic magnetometry technique breaks the NMOR blockade in single-probe atomic magnetometers, enabling an energy circulation that results in larger than 20-dB enhancement in NMOR signal as well as better than 6-dB improvement of magnetic field detection sensitivity. Remarkably, all experimental observations reported to date can be qualitatively well-explained using this colliding-probe atomic magnetometry theory without numerical computations. This colliding-probe atomic magnetometry technique may have broad applications in scientific and technological fields ranging from micro-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging to cosmic particle detection.
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