Optically pumped magnetometer and magnetic sensing method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8941377-B2
Application number	US-201213725840-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 21, 2012
Priority date	Feb 10, 2012
Publication date	Jan 27, 2015
Grant date	Jan 27, 2015

Abstract

An optically pumped magnetometer and a magnetic sensing method acquire information as to strengths of magnetic fields in two different directions. A pump light having a circularly polarized component, first probe light having a liner polarized component and second probe light having a linearly polarized component are emitted to a cell containing a group of alkali metal atoms so as to form a crossing region A magnetic field applying unit applies a static magnetic field in a direction of the pump light incident on the crossing region during the emission of the pump light, the first probe light and the second probe light. And, information as to strengths of magnetic fields in two different directions perpendicular to the direction of the static magnetic field in the cell from the rotation angles of a polarization planes of the first and second probe lights during passage through the cell is calculated.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An optically pumped magnetometer acquiring an information as to strengths of magnetic fields in different two directions comprising:
a cell including a group of alkali metal atoms;
a pump light optical system configured to direct a pump light containing a circularly polarized component incident in the cell;
a first probe light optical system configured to direct a first probe light containing a linearly polarized component so as to cross the pump light w…

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Mizutani Natsuhiko
• Kobayashi Tetsuo

Classifications

• G01R33/032 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic