On-chip fabrication of alkali-metal vapor cells utilizing an alkali-metal source tablet
On-chip fabrication of alkali-metal vapor cells utilizing an alkali-metal source tablet
复制标题
利用碱金属源片片上制造碱金属蒸气电池
DOI：
10.1088/0960-1317/23/11/115003
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发表时间：
2013
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
O. Tabata
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
K. Tsujimoto;K. Ban;Y. Hirai;K. Sugano;T. Tsuchiya;N. Mizutani;O. Tabata
我们描述了一种利用碱金属源片 (AMST) 的光泵原子磁力计 (OPAM) 碱金属蒸气室的新型片上微加工技术。新提出的 AMST 是一块毫米大小的多孔氧化铝，其相当大的表面积可容纳沉积的碱金属氯化物 (KCl) 和叠氮化钡 (BaN 6)，这些原料可在低于 400°C 的温度下有效产生碱金属蒸气。我们的实验表明，AMST 最有效的孔径在 60 至 170 µm 之间。固定 AMST 的绝缘玻璃垫片的厚度旨在将生产过程中产生的碱金属限制在蒸气室的内部，并且设计了集成硅加热器，以使用玻璃料密封该设备，该玻璃料在 460-490°C 的最佳温度范围内熔化，该温度范围是通过有限元方法热模拟确定的。所提出的设计和 AMST 用于成功制造 K 电池，然后将其用作 OPAM，测量灵敏度为 50 pT。这些结果表明，所提出的碱金属蒸气电池片上微加工概念可能会有效替代传统的玻璃加工方法。
We describe a novel on-chip microfabrication technique for the alkali-metal vapor cell of an optically pumped atomic magnetometer (OPAM), utilizing an alkali-metal source tablet (AMST). The newly proposed AMST is a millimeter-sized piece of porous alumina whose considerable surface area holds deposited alkali-metal chloride (KCl) and barium azide (BaN 6), source materials that effectively produce alkali-metal vapor at less than 400 C. Our experiments indicated that the most effective pore size of the AMST is between 60 and 170 µm. The thickness of an insulating glass spacer holding the AMST was designed to confine generated alkali metal to the interior of the vapor cell during its production, and an integrated silicon heater was designed to seal the device using a glass frit, melted at an optimum temperature range of 460–490 C that was determined by finite element method thermal simulation. The proposed design and AMST were used to successfully fabricate a K cell that was then operated as an OPAM with a measured sensitivity of 50 pT. These results demonstrate that the proposed concept for on-chip microfabrication of alkali-metal vapor cells may lead to effective replacement of conventional glassworking approaches.