Vector light enhanced atomic magnetometry

光泵磁力计是低温超导磁场传感器的一种有吸引力的技术替代品。它们利用碱金属原子对光场和磁场的独特敏感性，通过偏振光产生原子极化并测量其对磁场的响应来工作。该项目融合了量子磁力学和结构光的研究领域：我们将开发用结构矢量光泵浦的磁力计，并展示由此产生的时间和空间信息增强。我们将使用最先进的技术来设计与其空间和偏振自由度相关的矢量光，使我们能够将空间变化的光学偏振压印到空间变化的原子自旋偏振上。该项目旨在探索和展示与传统光泵原子磁力计相比所产生的扩展功能，解决以下挑战：在单轴几何结构中测量3D矢量磁场方向的能力，区分偏置和梯度磁场，以及检测时变磁场。我们的联盟包括5个学术合作伙伴，2个国家实验室和一家在磁力测量，结构光，光学平台和建模方面具有专业知识的深度技术公司。该项目将加强量子技术在欧洲的竞争力和领导地位，将科学概念转化为用户友好的设备，在生命，物理和地球科学中具有广泛的应用，将在全现场环境中对真实的操作科学地磁传感器进行测试。

Optically pumped magnetometers present an attractive technological alternative to cryogenic, superconducting magnetic field sensors. They make use of the unique sensitivity of, for example, alkali atoms to optical and magnetic fields and operate by generating atomic polarization with polarised light and measuring its response to the magnetic field. This project merges the research fields of quantum magnetometry and structured light: We will develop magnetometers that are pumped with structured vector light and demonstrate the resulting temporal and spatial information enhancement. We will use state-of-the-art technology to design vector light correlated in its spatial and polarisation degrees of freedom, allowing us to imprint spatially varying optical polarisation onto spatially varying atomic spin polarisations. This project aims to explore and demonstrate the resulting extended functionality compared to conventional optically pumped atomic magnetometers, addressing the following challenges: the capability to measure 3D vector magnetic field direction in a single-axis geometry, to distinguish between bias and gradient magnetic fields, and to detect time-varying magnetic fields. Our consortium comprises 5 academic partners, 2 national labs and a deep tech company with expertise in magnetometry, structured light, optical platforms and modelling. The project will strengthen competitiveness and leadership of Quantum Technology in Europe by translating scientific concepts into user-friendly devices with wide-ranging applications in the life, physical and geosciences, which will be tested in a full field environment against real time operational scientific geomagnetic sensors.