• Accepted Paper

Light-induced line narrowing of the magnetic resonance in a parametric resonance optically pumped rubidium magnetometer

Yongbiao Yang, Yang Li, Zhengyu Su, Jun He, Xiaojun Jia, Yanhua Wang, and Junmin Wang

Phys. Rev. A - Accepted 14 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/sbb6-t133

Abstract

Optically pumped atomic magnetometers are fundamentally limited by spin-exchange relaxation in finite magnetic fields. In conventional parametric resonance magnetometers (PRMs), this relaxation dominates the resonance linewidth, producing broad profiles that degrade sensitivity. Here, we suppress this relaxation by incorporating light narrowing via optical pumping into spin-stretched states in a longitudinally modulated PRM, which directly enables dual-axis vector detection of transverse magnetic fields through lock-in demodulation. Under optimized conditions, the magnetometer achieves transverse sensitivities of 210 fT/√Hz and 290 fT/√Hz along two orthogonal axes, a 3-dB bandwidth of about 500 Hz, and excellent cross-axis discrimination—an order-of-magnitude improvement over conventional PRMs. This work demonstrates that light narrowing effectively overcomes the spin-exchange limitation in finite-field operation, providing a promising route for high-sensitivity vector magnetometry in applications such as atomic gyroscopes and active magnetic compensation.

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