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Title: Estimation of fluctuating magnetic fields by an atomic magnetometer

Journal Article · · Physical Review. A
;  [1]
  1. QUANTOP--Danish National Research Foundation Center for Quantum Optics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark)

We present a theoretical procedure to estimate with an atomic magnetometer the time dependence of a magnetic field that fluctuates according to an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. The magnetometer applies the detected polarization rotation of an optical probe to measure a collective atomic spin, which precesses due to the magnetic field. Based on the noisy optical detection record, our consistent Gaussian update formalism provides an estimator for the magnetic fields, and we identify analytically the steady-state performance of this estimator. We show that the estimate of the current value of the magnetic field is further improved if noisy measurement data obtained also at later times are taken into account.

OSTI ID:
20863965
Journal Information:
Physical Review. A, Vol. 74, Issue 4; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.74.043802; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English