Typical Operation
Alkali metal vapor of sufficient density is obtained by simply heating solid alkali metal inside the vapor cell. A typical SERF atomic magnetometer can take advantage of low noise diode lasers to polarize and monitor spin precession. Circularly polarized pumping light tuned to the spectral resonance line polarizes the atoms. An orthogonal probe beam detects the precession using optical rotation of linearly polarized light. In a typical SERF magnetometer, the spins merely tip by a very small angle because the precession frequency is slow compared to the relaxation rates.
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