Light intensity stabilization based on the second harmonic of the photoelastic modulator detection in the atomic...

The fluctuations of the probe light intensity seriously affect the performance of the sensitive atomic magnetometer. Here we propose a novel method for the intensity stabilization based on the second harmonic component of the photoelastic modulator (PEM) detection in the atomic magnetometer. The method not only could be used to eliminate the intensity fluctuations of the laser source, but also remove the fluctuations from the optical components caused by the environment. A relative fluctuation of the light intensity of 0.035% was achieved and the corresponding fluctuation of the output signal of the atomic magnetometer has decreased about two orders of magnitude from 4.06% to 0.041%. As the scheme proposed here only contains optical devices and does not require additional feedback controlled equipments, it is especially suitable for the integration of the atomic magnetometer.