Fast extraction of the electron spin-relaxation rate in the SERF magnetometer from a transient response

Abstract

The magnitude of the electron spin-relaxation rate Rrel of the atomic ensemble directly affects the sensitivity of the spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) atomic magnetometer (AM). The rapid and in-situ characterization of Rrel is of great importance. In this work, a fast extraction method of Rrel is proposed with a measurement period shorten to 0.5 s, merely detecting the transient response of SERF AM to a transverse DC excitation magnetic field after switching off the pump beam. In contrast to the conventional methods based on the measurement of the magnetic resonance linewidth, this method circumvents the involvement of optical pumping rate, and enables monitoring Rrel under arbitrary polarization, which is expected to improve the authenticity of Rrel measurement in a more convenient way.