Ultrawide Bandwidth Optomechanical Magnetometry Using Flux Concentration

Abstract

Low-frequency magnetic fields carry vital information for neuroscience, navigation, and Earth science. However, they are generally weak, making it challenging to measure them with compact, room-temperature magnetometers. To overcome this challenge, we combine an on-chip optomechanical magnetometer with a high-permeability flux concentrator. Beyond boosting sensitivity and bandwidth, exploiting the concentrator's nonlinear response converts low-frequency magnetic fluctuations into higher-frequency signals where the sensor is intrinsically most responsive. This sidesteps the technical noise that has long constrained the application of optomechanical magnetometry at low frequencies. Our measurements show order-of-magnitude improvements in sensitivity and extend performance into the sub-hertz regime, achieving below 20 nT Hz$^{-1/2}$ down to 3 Hz and less than 100 nT Hz$^{-1/2}$ at 0.1 Hz. Because this approach requires no redesign of the underlying architecture, it can be readily applied across magnetometer technologies, opening the way to practical low-frequency sensing for applications from brain activity mapping to undersea navigation and biomedical diagnostics.