Three-axis optically pumped magnetometer for gradiometric measurement

1. A three-axis vector optically pumped magnetometer, comprising:

a cell filled with an atomic gas subjected to an ambient magnetic field, a projection of which on three rectangular coordinate axes defines three components thereof,

a photodetector arranged so as to receive a probe beam that passed through the cell, wherein the photodetector comprises a plurality of measurement units arranged in a plane transverse to a direction of propagation of the probe beam, the measurement units each providing a photodetection signal, and

a processing unit coupled to the photodetector and being configured to:

determine, for each measurement unit and from the photodetection signal provided by the measurement unit, a measurement, associated with the measurement unit, of each of the three components of the ambient magnetic field; and

calculate at least one difference between the measurements, associated with different measurement units, of a component of the magnetic field and deliver a gradiometric measurement signal comprising the at least one difference calculated.

2. The magnetometer according to claim 1 , wherein the measurement units of the photodetector are arranged in array form and are at least 3*3 in number.

3. The magnetometer according to claim 1 , wherein the photodetector is a photodiode array.

4. The magnetometer according to claim 1 , wherein the photodetector is a charge coupled detector.

5. The magnetometer according to claim 4 , wherein each measurement unit of the photodetector is formed by a plurality of pixels close to the charge coupled detector, the photodetection signal of each measurement unit corresponding to an average of the photodetection signals individually delivered by the pixels of the measurement unit.

6. The magnetometer according to claim 1 , further comprising:

a parametric resonance excitation circuit configured to induce in the cell a radio frequency magnetic field having two components each oscillating at its own oscillation frequency,

an optical pumping source arranged to emit towards the cell a pump beam tuned to an atomic transition, the probe beam being identical to or distinct from the pump beam, and

a polarisation device configured to impart a linear polarisation to the pump beam,

wherein, to determine a measurement, associated with each measurement unit, of each of the three components of the ambient magnetic field, the processing unit is configured to perform synchronous detection of the photodetection signal provided by the measurement unit at a harmonic of each of the oscillation frequencies and at an inter-harmonic of the oscillation frequencies.

7. The magnetometer according to claim 1 , further comprising:

a parametric resonance excitation circuit configured to induce in the cell a radio frequency magnetic field having three components each oscillating at its own oscillation frequency,

an optical pumping source arranged to emit towards the cell a pump beam tuned to an atomic transition, the probe beam being identical to or distinct from the pump beam, and

a polarisation device configured to impart an elliptical polarisation to the pump beam,

wherein, to determine a measurement, associated with each measurement unit, of each of the three components of the ambient magnetic field, the processing unit is configured to perform synchronous detection of the photodetection signal provided by the measurement unit at a harmonic of each of the oscillation frequencies.

8. The magnetometer according to claim 1 , wherein

the three components of the ambient magnetic field comprise two components, B x and B y , transverse to the direction of propagation of the probe beam and one component, B z , longitudinal to the direction of propagation of the probe beam, and

the gradiometric measurement signal comprises:

transverse gradients of the B z component, ∂B z /∂x and ∂B z /∂ y ,

longitudinal gradients of the B x and B y components, ∂B x /∂x and ∂B y /∂ y , and

a transverse gradient of the B x component and a transverse gradient of the B y component, ∂B x /∂y and ∂B y /∂x.

9. A method for measuring a spatial gradient of a magnetic field by means of a three-axis vector optically pumped magnetometer which comprises:

a cell filled with an atomic gas subjected to an ambient magnetic field, a projection of which onto three rectangular coordinate axes defines three components thereof,

a photodetector arranged so as to receive a probe beam that passed through the cell, the photodetector comprising a plurality of measurement units arranged in a plane transverse to a direction of propagation of the probe beam, the measurement units each providing a photodetection signal, and

a processing unit coupled to the photodetector,

said method comprising the following steps implemented by the processing unit, of:

determining, for each measurement unit and from the photodetection signal provided by the measurement unit, a measurement, associated with the measurement unit, of each of the three components of the ambient magnetic field; and

calculating at least one difference between the measurements, associated with different measurement units, of a component of the magnetic field and providing a gradiometric measurement signal comprising the at least one difference calculated.