title: Production and detection of atomic hexadecapole at Earth's magnetic field.
abstract: Optical magnetometers measure magnetic fields with extremely high precision and without cryogenics. However, at geomagnetic fields, important for applications from landmine removal to archaeology, they suffer from nonlinear Zeeman splitting, leading to systematic dependence on sensor orientation. We present experimental results on a method of eliminating this systematic error, using the hexadecapole atomic polarization moment. In particular, we demonstrate selective production of the atomic hexadecapole moment at Earth's magnetic field and verify its immunity to nonlinear Zeeman splitting. This technique promises to eliminate directional errors in all-optical atomic magnetometers, potentially improving their measurement accuracy by several orders of magnitude.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley, CA 94720-7300, USA.
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Acosta
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Auzinsh
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gawlik
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Grisins
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Higbie
authors.forename: D F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Jackson Kimball
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Krzemien
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Ledbetter
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pustelny
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Rochester
authors.forename: V V
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Yashchuk
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Budker
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D018534:Earth, Planet; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008027:Light; D008280:Magnetics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011874:Radiometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D014159:Transducers