Close-Loop Bell–Bloom Magnetometer with Amplitude Modulation

Abstract

A high sensitive optical amplitude modulation magnetometer is investigated and demonstrated experimentally. We build an experimental platform for the atomic magnetometer and configure it as a Bell–Bloom magnetometer with amplitude modulation of 50% duty cycle square waveform. The open-loop input-output model is deduced from the Bloch equation and is verified experimentally. Instead of locking the frequency by using a voltage control oscillator, we realize a closed loop using the coils to generate a feedback field which avoids the stringent requirement of a high resolution frequency meter and markedly expands the dynamic range as well as the bandwidth. We realize an open loop sensitivity of 0.8 pT/Hz1/2 at 20 Hz using a single light beam, which exceeds that of the state-of-the-art Bell–Bloom magnetometers, and the corresponding closed loop sensitivity is 1.2 pT/Hz1/2.