No Arabic abstract
Atomic comagnetometers, which measure the spin precession frequencies of overlapped species simultaneously, are widely applied to search for exotic spin-dependent interactions. Here we propose and implement an all-optical single-species Cs atomic comagnetometer based on the optical free induction decay (FID) signal of Cs atoms in hyperfine levels $F_g=3~&~4$ within the same atomic ensemble. We experimentally show that systematic errors induced by magnetic field gradients and laser fields are highly suppressed in the comagnetometer, but those induced by asynchronous optical pumping and drift of residual magnetic field in the shield dominate the uncertainty of the comagnetometer. With this comagnetometer system, we set the constraint on the strength of spin-gravity coupling of the proton at a level of $10^{-18}$ eV, comparable to the most stringent one. With further optimization in magnetic field stabilization and spin polarization, the systematic errors can be effectively suppressed, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) can be improved, promising to set more stringent constraints on spin-gravity interactions.
We simultaneously trap ultracold lithium and cesium atoms in an optical dipole trap formed by the focus of a CO$_2$ laser and study the exchange of thermal energy between the gases. The cesium gas, which is optically cooled to $20 mu$K, efficiently decreases the temperature of the lithium gas through sympathetic cooling. The measured cross section for thermalizing $^{133}$Cs-$^7$Li collisions is $8 times 10^{-12}$ cm$^2$, for both species in their lowest hyperfine ground state. Besides thermalization, we observe evaporation of lithium purely through elastic cesium-lithium collisions (sympathetic evaporation).
Scanning diamond magnetometers based on the optically detected magnetic resonance of the nitrogen-vacancy centre offer very high sensitivity and non-invasive imaging capabilities when the stray fields emanating from ultrathin magnetic materials are sufficiently low (< 10 mT). Beyond this low-field regime, the optical signal quenches and a quantitative measurement is challenging. While the field-dependent NV photoluminescence can still provide qualitative information on magnetic morphology, this operation regime remains unexplored particularly for surface magnetisation larger than $sim$ 3 mA. Here, we introduce a multi-angle reconstruction technique (MARe) that captures the full nanoscale domain morphology in all magnetic-field regimes leading to NV photoluminescence quench. To demonstrate this, we use [Ir/Co/Pt]$_{14}$ multilayer films with surface magnetisation an order of magnitude larger than previous reports. Our approach brings non-invasive nanoscale magnetic field imaging capability to the study of a wider pool of magnetic materials and phenomena.
Electromagnetic induction imaging with atomic magnetometers has disclosed unprecedented domains for imaging, from security screening to material characterization. However, applications to low-conductivity specimens -- most notably for biomedical imaging -- require sensitivity, stability, and tunability only speculated thus far. Here, we demonstrate contactless and non-invasive imaging down to 50 S/m using a 50 fT/Hz$^{-1/2}$ $^{87}$Rb radio-frequency atomic magnetometer operating in an unshielded environment and near room temperature. Two-dimensional images of test objects are obtained with a near-resonant imaging approach, which reduces the phase noise by a factor 172, with projected sensitivity of 1 S/m. Our results, an improvement of more than three orders of magnitude on previous imaging demonstrations, push electromagnetic imaging with atomic magnetometers to regions of interest for semiconductors, insulators, and biological tissues.
We demonstrate identification of position, material, orientation and shape of objects imaged by an $^{85}$Rb atomic magnetometer performing electromagnetic induction imaging supported by machine learning. Machine learning maximizes the information extracted from the images created by the magnetometer, demonstrating the use of hidden data. Localization 2.6 times better than the spatial resolution of the imaging system and successful classification up to 97$%$ are obtained. This circumvents the need of solving the inverse problem, and demonstrates the extension of machine learning to diffusive systems such as low-frequency electrodynamics in media. Automated collection of task-relevant information from quantum-based electromagnetic imaging will have a relevant impact from biomedicine to security.
We report on the use of radio-frequency optical atomic magnetometers for magnetic induction tomography measurements. We demonstrate the imaging of dummy targets of varying conductivities placed in the proximity of the sensor, in an unshielded environment at room-temperature and without background subtraction. The images produced by the system accurately reproduce the characteristics of the actual objects. Furthermore, we perform finite element simulations in order to assess the potential for measuring low-conductivity biological tissues with our system. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of an instrument based on optical atomic magnetometers for magnetic induction tomography imaging of biological samples, in particular for mapping anomalous conductivity in the heart.