ABSTRACT
We introduce a novel and sensitive ns-resolved atomic magnetometer, which is at least three orders of magnitude faster than conventional magnetometers. We use the magnetic field dependence of the hyperfine beating of high-density spin-polarized H atoms, produced from the rapid photodissociation of HCl gas with sub-ns laser pulses and measured with a pick-up coil, to demonstrate ns-resolved magnetometry, and project sensitivity of a few nT for a spin-projection-limited sensor with 10 nl measurement volume after 1 ns measurement time. The magnetometer will allow ultrafast continuous B-field measurements in many fields, including spin chemistry, spin physics, and plasma physics.
ABSTRACT
Recently, our group produced spin-polarized hydrogen (SPH) atoms at densities of at least 1019 cm-3 from the photodissociation of hydrogen halide molecules with circularly polarized UV light and measured them via magnetization-quantum beats with a pickup coil. These densities are approximately 7 orders of magnitude higher than those produced using conventional methods, opening up new fields of application, such as ultrafast magnetometry, the production of polarized MeV and GeV particle beams, such as electron beams with intensities approximately 104 higher than current sources, and the study of polarized nuclear fusion, for which the reaction cross sections of D-T and D-3He reactions are expected to increase by 50% for fully polarized nuclear spins. We review the production, detection, depolarization mechanisms, and potential applications of high-density SPH.
