dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaPortable Single-Beam Atomic Total-Field Magnetometer for Stand-off Magnetic Sensing
| Authors | Heonsik Lee, Hyunbeen Lee, Minseok Choi, Yoontae Hwang, Deok-Young Lee |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | 2601.08716vv1 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.08716 |
| License | http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/ |
Abstract
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.
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"abstract": "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.",
"arxiv_id": "2601.08716",
"authors": [
"Heonsik Lee",
"Hyunbeen Lee",
"Minseok Choi",
"Yoontae Hwang",
"Deok-Young Lee"
],
"categories": [
"physics.atom-ph",
"physics.app-ph"
],
"license": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
"title": "Portable Single-Beam Atomic Total-Field Magnetometer for Stand-off Magnetic Sensing",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.08716",
"version": "v1"
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