A Precessing Ferromagnetic Needle Magnetometer

TL;DR

This paper predicts that a ferromagnetic needle precesses at the Larmor frequency under certain conditions, enabling highly sensitive magnetic field measurements that could surpass existing magnetometers and aid in fundamental physics tests.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of a precessing ferromagnetic needle magnetometer and analyzes its potential for ultra-sensitive magnetic field detection.

Findings

Precessing ferromagnetic needles behave as gyroscopes with spin Nħ.

Sensitivity scales as t^{-3/2} under low-noise conditions.

Potential for surpassing atomic spin precession magnetometers.

Abstract

A ferromagnetic needle is predicted to precess about the magnetic field axis at a Larmor frequency $\Omega$ under conditions where its intrinsic spin dominates over its rotational angular momentum, $N\hbar \gg I\Omega$ ($I$ is the moment of inertia of the needle about the precession axis and $N$ is the number of polarized spins in the needle). In this regime the needle behaves as a gyroscope with spin $N\hbar$ maintained along the easy axis of the needle by the crystalline and shape anisotropy. A precessing ferromagnetic needle is a correlated system of $N$ spins which can be used to measure magnetic fields for long times. In principle, by taking advantage of rapid averaging of quantum uncertainty, the sensitivity of a precessing needle magnetometer can far surpass that of magnetometers based on spin precession of atoms in the gas phase. Under conditions where noise from coupling to the environment is subdominant, the scaling with measurement time $t$ of the quantum- and detection-limited magnetometric sensitivity is $t^{-3/2}$. The phenomenon of ferromagnetic needle precession may be of particular interest for precision measurements testing fundamental physics.