Portable Single-Beam Atomic Total-Field Magnetometer for Stand-off Magnetic Sensing
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arXiv
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| Autori principali: | , , , , |
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| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866908761668452352 |
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| author | Lee, Heonsik Lee, Hyunbeen Choi, Minseok Hwang, Yoontae Lee, Deok-Young |
| author_facet | Lee, Heonsik Lee, Hyunbeen Choi, Minseok Hwang, Yoontae Lee, Deok-Young |
| contents | Optically pumped atomic magnetometers (OPAMs) offer high sensitivity at room temperature and are increasingly considered for portable magnetic sensing in geomagnetic-field environments. Here we report a handheld-scale, single-beam scalar $^{87}$Rb OPAM with a sensor-head volume of approximately 110 mL. The device operates in an all-optical Bell-Bloom configuration and uses digital lock-in, dispersive tracking of the $^{87}$Rb Larmor resonance, implemented with a hybrid electronics stack that combines in-house control hardware with commercial modules. A single frequency-modulated laser beam performs both pumping and probing without RF coils. In an unshielded indoor environment, the magnetometer exhibits a noise floor below 6 pT/$\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ near 80 Hz and a measurement bandwidth of 200 Hz. In an unshielded Earth-field deployment, we detect repeatable transient magnetic signatures from a controlled elevator motion sequence and quantify standoff observability over sensor-elevator distances from 1.25 m to 10 m. These results show that compact scalar OPAMs can provide bandwidth and range-resolved event sensitivity suitable for field-deployable magnetic anomaly detection and infrastructure monitoring in realistic geomagnetic environments. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_08716 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Portable Single-Beam Atomic Total-Field Magnetometer for Stand-off Magnetic Sensing Lee, Heonsik Lee, Hyunbeen Choi, Minseok Hwang, Yoontae Lee, Deok-Young Atomic Physics Applied Physics Optically pumped atomic magnetometers (OPAMs) offer high sensitivity at room temperature and are increasingly considered for portable magnetic sensing in geomagnetic-field environments. Here we report a handheld-scale, single-beam scalar $^{87}$Rb OPAM with a sensor-head volume of approximately 110 mL. The device operates in an all-optical Bell-Bloom configuration and uses digital lock-in, dispersive tracking of the $^{87}$Rb Larmor resonance, implemented with a hybrid electronics stack that combines in-house control hardware with commercial modules. A single frequency-modulated laser beam performs both pumping and probing without RF coils. In an unshielded indoor environment, the magnetometer exhibits a noise floor below 6 pT/$\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ near 80 Hz and a measurement bandwidth of 200 Hz. In an unshielded Earth-field deployment, we detect repeatable transient magnetic signatures from a controlled elevator motion sequence and quantify standoff observability over sensor-elevator distances from 1.25 m to 10 m. These results show that compact scalar OPAMs can provide bandwidth and range-resolved event sensitivity suitable for field-deployable magnetic anomaly detection and infrastructure monitoring in realistic geomagnetic environments. |
| title | Portable Single-Beam Atomic Total-Field Magnetometer for Stand-off Magnetic Sensing |
| topic | Atomic Physics Applied Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.08716 |