Optically pumped atomic magnetometer and magnetic sensing method

• Main Authors: Mizutani, Natsuhiko, Ichihara, Sunao, Ito, Yosuke, Kobayashi, Tetsuo
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 14.05.2019
• Subjects: MEASURING; MEASURING ELECTRIC VARIABLES; MEASURING MAGNETIC VARIABLES; PHYSICS; TESTING

Provided is an optically pumped atomic magnetometer that can separate and acquire magnetic information of spatially different places at the same time by one probe beam. The optically pumped atomic magnetometer includes a cell containing alkali metal atoms, a pump beam optical system introducing pump beams including circularly polarized light component to different locations of the cell, a probe beam optical system introducing a probe beam including linearly polarized light component to the cell, a detection unit detecting a signal reflecting a rotation angle of a plane of polarization of the probe beam after intersecting with the pump beams, and an information acquisition unit acquiring information related to a magnetic field intensity of each of the different locations from the detected signal. The pump beam optical system includes a modulation unit modulating the pump beams so that one of frequencies and phases of the pump beams is different.