Bose-Einstein Condensate Comagnetometer

Abstract

We describe a comagnetometer employing the f=1 and f=2 ground state hyperfine manifolds of a ^{87}Rb spinor Bose-Einstein condensate as colocated magnetometers. The hyperfine manifolds feature nearly opposite gyromagnetic ratios and thus the sum of their precession angles is only weakly coupled to external magnetic fields, while being highly sensitive to any effect that rotates both manifolds in the same way. The f=1 and f=2 transverse magnetizations and azimuth angles are independently measured by nondestructive Faraday rotation probing, and we demonstrate a 44.0(8) dB common-mode rejection in good agreement with theory. We show how the magnetometer coherence time can be extended to ∼1 s, by using spin-dependent interactions to inhibit hyperfine relaxing collisions between f=2 atoms. The technique could be used in high sensitivity searches for new physics on submillimeter length scales, precision studies of ultracold collision physics, and angle-resolved studies of quantum spin dynamics.