Magnetocardiography with a modular spin-exchange relaxation free atomic magnetometer array

Abstract

We present a portable four-channel atomic magnetometer array operating in the spin exchange relaxation-free regime. The magnetometer array has several design features intended to maximize its suitability for biomagnetic measurement, specifically foetal magnetocardiography, such as a compact modular design, and fibre coupled lasers. The modular design allows the independent positioning and orientation of each magnetometer, in principle allowing for non-planar array geometries. Using this array in a magnetically shielded room, we acquire adult magnetocadiograms. These measurements were taken with a 6-11 fT Hz^(-1/2) single-channel baseline sensitivity that is consistent with the independently measured noise level of the magnetically shielded room.