title: Dead-zone-free atomic magnetometry with simultaneous excitation of orientation and alignment resonances.
abstract: Atomic magnetometers have very high absolute precision and sensitivity to magnetic fields but suffer from a fundamental problem: the vectorial or tensorial interaction of light with atoms leads to "dead zones," certain orientations of the magnetic field where the magnetometer loses its sensitivity. We demonstrate a simple polarization modulation scheme that simultaneously creates coherent population trapping (CPT) in orientation and alignment, thereby eliminating dead zones. Using 87Rb in a 10 Torr buffer gas cell we measure narrow, high-contrast CPT transparency peaks for all orientations and also show the absence of systematic effects associated with nonlinear Zeeman splitting.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ben-Kish
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Romalis