A picotesla atomic magnetometer operating at normal temperature

The basic principle of atomic magnetometer is to measure the precession frequency of polarized atomic spins in a magnetic field. The paper describes the optical pump, probe process and spin relaxation mechanisms. The magnetometer based on Cs atom is demonstrated in the experiment. At normal temperature 30°C the magnetometer achieves 8nT magnetic resonance widths and magnetic field sensitivity of 4.8pT/Hz1/2. It is more convenient for miniature structure design due to operate in lower temperature.