Abstract

I will discuss the principles and sensitivity limits of optical magnetometers that have seen a significant boost in their
performance in recent years which has catalyzed development of novel applications, including, measurement of biomagnetic fields and single-spin-resolution magnetic microscopy. Using a miniature atomic magnetometer in conjunction with a microfluidic setup, we have recently been studying the “scalar” couplings between nuclear spins in molecules,
which involves observation of time-dependent nuclear magnetization in an environment that can be characterized as “magnetic vacuum,” in dramatic contrast to the traditional high-field NMR techniques. I will also briefly move from mm-scale magnetometers to km-scale ones, and describe progress towards measuring magnetic fields using sodium atoms in the
Earth’s mesosphere. Up-to-date bibliography of our group's research can
be found on the group's web page http://budker.berkeley.edu/