Magnetic fields are ubiquitous in nature, and are generated most often by either electric currents or permanently magnetized material. The sensing of these fields provides information about the sources. For example, metallic objects buried underground can be detected by use of sensors placed above ground. Other key applications of magnetic sensors are the monitoring of magnetic signals produced by the human body (particularly the heart and brain) and the measurement of magnetized nuclear samples in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments.

The goals of this project are to investigate miniature, high-performance magnetic sensors based on atomic vapors. Microfabrication techniques allow for easy production of large arrays of such sensors, while maintaining low power consumption (tens of milliwatts) and small sensor size (millimeters). Chip-scale atomic magnetometers can be divided into several categories: scalar vs. vector sensor, earth-field vs. low-field sensors, all-optical vs. RF-driven sensors, alignment-based vs. orientation-based sensors, DC vs. AC-field sensors, etc. The choice and design of the magnetometer is largely dictated by the specific application.

Contact: Svenja Knappe