Modeling an optical magnetometer with electronic circuits — analysis and optimization

Optical magnetometers are currently able to achieve magnetometric sensitivities below 1 fT/Hz^1/2. Although such sensitivities are typically obtained for ultra-low-field measurements, a group of optical magnetometers allows the detection of the fields in a much broader dynamic range without a significant compromise in the sensitivity. A particular example of such a device is the magnetometer exploiting amplitude-modulated nonlinear magneto-optical rotation. It enables measurement of a magnetic field via detection of a polarization state of light traversing a medium subjected to the field. In this paper, an electronic-circuit analogue of such the magnetometer is elaborated. Its operation is investigated with an electronic-circuit design software, which allows to study the “magnetometer” performance as a function of various parameters. The ability to automate operation of the magnetometer and automatically track “magnetic field” is demonstrated. The simulations are verified with experimental results obtained with the true magnetometer operating in one of the investigated arrangements.