Sensitivity Comparison of Mx and Frequency-Modulated Bell–Bloom Cs Magnetometers in a Microfabricated Cell

We compare the sensitivity performance of two optically pumped atomic magnetometers based on the Mx and frequency-modulated bell-bloom configurations. The Cs magnetometers are implemented using a millimeter-scale microfabricated vapor cell. It is found that the Bell-Bloom magnetometer yields sensitivities similar to those of the Mx magnetometer when operated under equally optimized conditions. The Bell-Bloom approach offers several attractive features over the Mx approach for chip-scale magnetometer instrumentation.