Development of high-sensitivity optically pumped helium atomic magnetometers toward biomagnetic measurements

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25610171
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Plasma science
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: ITO Yosuke 京都大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 助教 (20589189)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 光ポンピング / プラズマ / 磁気センサ / 生体磁気計測

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Optically pumped helium atomic magnetometers with atmospheric-pressure plasmas have been developed toward biomagnetic measurements. Conventional atomic magnetometers with alkali-metal atoms were examined for exploring the feasibility of biomagnetic measurements with the magnetometers. By solving the Bloch equation, we obtained the characteristics of the magnetometers and found that the lifetime of helium metastable atoms essentially influences the frequency characteristics. We developed the helium atomic magnetometer, which can measure the biomagnetic fields with post-processing such as signal averaging.

Free Research Field

数物系科学