Detection of a single cobalt microparticle with a microfabricated atomic magnetometer

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates highly sensitive detection of a single cobalt microparticle using a microfabricated atomic magnetometer, achieving a 105-fold improvement over previous methods through small vapor cells.

Contribution

The study introduces a microfabricated atomic magnetometer capable of detecting individual cobalt microparticles with unprecedented sensitivity.

Findings

Achieved detection of a 2 μm cobalt microparticle.

Improved sensitivity by a factor of 105 compared to prior work.

Predicted detection limits of 0.17 μm^3 with optimized setup.

Abstract

We present magnetic detection of a single, 2 {\mu}m diameter cobalt microparticle using an atomic magnetometer based on a microfabricated vapor cell. These results represent an improvement by a factor of 105 in terms of the detected magnetic moment over previous work using atomic magnetometers to detect magnetic microparticles. The improved sensitivity is due largely to the use of small vapor cells. In an optimized setup, we predict detection limits of 0.17 {\mu}m^3.