Effects of pump laser power density on the hybrid optically pumped comagnetometer for rotation sensing

Opt Express. 2019 Sep 30;27(20):27420-27430. doi: 10.1364/OE.27.027420.

Abstract

We investigate the effects of pump laser power density on the hybrid optically pumped comagnetometer operated in the spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) regime. The analytic steady-state output model for the comagnetometer considering two alkali metal species and one nuclear species is presented for the first time. And the effects of pump laser power density on the rotation sensitivity, suppression of low-frequency magnetic noise and long-term stability of the comagnetometer are studied experimentally. The results indicate that when the product of pumping rate and density ratio of pumped atom to probed atom is equal to the spin relaxation rate of the probed atom, the maximum response and highest sensitivity of the comagnetometer are achieved. However, the suppression of low-frequency magnetic noise and long-term stability improve with the increasing of pump laser power density due to the increasing of nuclear spin polarization. Our focus is to optimize the performance of the comagnetometer for rotation sensing, but the theory and method presented here are relevant to all applications of the hybrid optical pumping technique.