A Single-species Atomic Comagnetometer Based on 87Rb atoms

Abstract

The comagnetometer has been one of the most sensitive devices with which to test new physics related to spin-dependent interactions, but the comagnetometers based on overlapping ensembles of multiple spin species usually suffer from systematic errors due to magnetic field gradients. Here, we propose a comagnetometer based on the Zeeman transitions of the dual hyperfine levels in ground-state 87Rb atoms, which shows nearly negligible sensitivity to variations of laser power and frequency, magnetic field, and magnetic field gradients. We measured the hypothetical spin-dependent gravitational energy of the proton with the comagnetometer, which is smaller than 4*10^{-18} eV, comparable to the most stringent existing constraint. Through optimization of the atomic cell, it is possible to improve the accuracy of the comagnetometer further.