title: Detection of NMR signals with a radio-frequency atomic magnetometer.
abstract: We demonstrate detection of proton NMR signals with a radio-frequency (rf) atomic magnetometer tuned to the NMR frequency of 62 kHz. High-frequency operation of the atomic magnetometer makes it relatively insensitive to ambient magnetic field noise. We obtain magnetic field sensitivity of 7 fT/Hz1/2 using only a thin aluminum shield. We also derive an expression for the fundamental sensitivity limit of a surface inductive pick-up coil as a function of frequency and find that an atomic rf magnetometer is intrinsically more sensitive than a coil of comparable size for frequencies below about 50 MHz.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
authors.forename: I M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Savukov
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Seltzer
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Romalis
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D008280:Magnetics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011846:Radio Waves; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014159:Transducers; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D014867:Water