0000000000352723
AUTHOR
Guzhi Bao
All-Optical Spin Locking in Alkali-Vapor Magnetometers
The nonlinear Zeeman effect can induce splittings and asymmetries of magnetic-resonance lines in the geophysical magnetic-field range. We demonstrate a scheme to suppress the nonlinear Zeeman effect all optically based on spin locking. Spin locking is achieved with an effective oscillating magnetic field provided by the AC Stark-shift of an intensity-modulated and polarization-modulated laser beam. This results in the collapse of the multi-component asymmetric magnetic-resonance line with about 100 Hz width in the Earth-field range into a peak with a central component width of 25Hz. The technique is expected to be broadly applicable in practical magnetometry, potentially boosting the sensit…
Suppression of nonlinear Zeeman effect and heading error in earth-field-range alkali-vapor magnetometers
The nonlinear Zeeman effect can induce splitting and asymmetries of magnetic-resonance lines in the geophysical magnetic field range. This is a major source of "heading error" for scalar atomic magnetometers. We demonstrate a method to suppress the nonlinear Zeeman effect and heading error based on spin locking. In an all-optical synchronously pumped magnetometer with separate pump and probe beams, we apply a radio-frequency field which is in-phase with the precessing magnetization. In an earth-range field, a multi-component asymmetric magnetic-resonance line with ? 60 Hz width collapses into a single peak with a width of 22 Hz, whose position is largely independent of the orientation of th…
Evidence for degenerate mirrorless lasing in alkali metal vapor: forward beam magneto-optical experiment
We report an experimental observation of degenerate mirrorless lasing in forward direction under excitation of a dilute atomic Rb vapor with a single linearly polarized cw laser light resonant with cycling Fe > Fg atomic D2 transitions. Light polarized orthogonally to the laser light is generated for the input light intensity exceeding a threshold value of about 3 mW/cm^2. Application of a transverse magnetic field directed along the input light polarization reveals a sharp about 20 mG wide magnetic resonance centered at B = 0. Increasing the incident light intensity from 3 to 300 mW/cm^2, the generated light undergoes rapid amplitude increase followed by a decline and resonance broadeni…