Probe-assisted Depopulation Pumping in Low-pressure Alkali-metal Vapor Cells for Magnetometry
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| author | Limes, M. E. Smoot, J. Perez, J. Freeman, J. Amano-Dolan, C. Peters, D. Lee, W. |
| author_facet | Limes, M. E. Smoot, J. Perez, J. Freeman, J. Amano-Dolan, C. Peters, D. Lee, W. |
| contents | For precision atomic magnetometry, inert buffer gas is included in alkali-metal vapor cells to significantly broaden hyperfine transitions, which facilitates optical pumping and reduces diffusive relaxation, while also providing non-radiative excited state quenching. We show low-buffer gas pressure (below 50 Torr) alkali vapor cells with resolved hyperfine manifolds can also yield high-performance magnetometers. For high polarization in $^{87}$Rb, we optically pump $F=2$ states with narrow linewidth $σ_+$ light, while tuning a probe beam to depopulate $F=1$ states ($Δν= 6.8$ GHz from $F=2$). The probe tuning then also provides $F=2$ detection with high optical rotation and low probe broadening; we demonstrate top-bottom gradiometry, within a single 25 Torr, 0.5 cc cell, that yields an Earth's field free-precession magnetometer sensitivity of 18 fT/$\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ with a 1 kHz bandwidth, as well as RF magnetometer sensitivity of 12 fT/$\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ in a small band about 110 kHz. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_10931 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Probe-assisted Depopulation Pumping in Low-pressure Alkali-metal Vapor Cells for Magnetometry Limes, M. E. Smoot, J. Perez, J. Freeman, J. Amano-Dolan, C. Peters, D. Lee, W. Atomic Physics For precision atomic magnetometry, inert buffer gas is included in alkali-metal vapor cells to significantly broaden hyperfine transitions, which facilitates optical pumping and reduces diffusive relaxation, while also providing non-radiative excited state quenching. We show low-buffer gas pressure (below 50 Torr) alkali vapor cells with resolved hyperfine manifolds can also yield high-performance magnetometers. For high polarization in $^{87}$Rb, we optically pump $F=2$ states with narrow linewidth $σ_+$ light, while tuning a probe beam to depopulate $F=1$ states ($Δν= 6.8$ GHz from $F=2$). The probe tuning then also provides $F=2$ detection with high optical rotation and low probe broadening; we demonstrate top-bottom gradiometry, within a single 25 Torr, 0.5 cc cell, that yields an Earth's field free-precession magnetometer sensitivity of 18 fT/$\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ with a 1 kHz bandwidth, as well as RF magnetometer sensitivity of 12 fT/$\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ in a small band about 110 kHz. |
| title | Probe-assisted Depopulation Pumping in Low-pressure Alkali-metal Vapor Cells for Magnetometry |
| topic | Atomic Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.10931 |