Yannick's web page

Thesis proposal.

Abstract

Atomic magnetometers have become the most sensitive tools of measuring magnetic fields. New developments in this vibrant area of knowledge can lead to new technologies in the study of fast and small magnetic fields, such as the ones produced by the human brain. However, limitations of an atomic magnetometer that is probed using light are: atomic projection noise of the atoms and shot noise of the probing light. I propose to make, detect, characterize and apply a “fast-measuring” source to interact with Rubidium atoms: Rubidium-resonant pulsed polarization squeezed light. We prove in this work that it is theoretically possible to produce pulsed polarization squeezing using an optical parametric oscillator resonant to Rubidium and an acousto-optic modulator. From this calculation we conclude that one could have a repetition rate as high as 3 MHz of the pulses, still preserving a good degree of squeezing. In this way, we could improve the detection of fast and small magnetic fields, and measure them in an atomic magnetometer using the Faraday effect. This proposal is divided as follows: context, objectives, and work plan and calendar.

PPSqueezing_resubmitted.pdf Pulsed Polarization Squeezing