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Monolithic metasurface for ultra-stable nuclear spin frequency for miniaturized NMR optical pumping

  • Beihang University
  • National Institute of Extremely-Weak Magnetic Field Infrastructure
  • Beihang Hangzhou Innovation Institute
  • Hefei National Laboratory

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Miniaturized nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) co-magnetometers serve as critical platforms for high-precision inertial and magnetic sensing. However, their development has been fundamentally constrained by the trade-off between system compactness and the demanding optical requirements for atomic spin pumping. In this work, a phase-polarization joint modulation design strategy is employed to achieve the functional integration of beam collimation and high-efficiency circular polarization generation on a single metasurface. The resulting device delivers outstanding optical performance, including a circular polarization purity of 97.09% and a highly collimated output with a divergence half-angle of 4.06 mrad. Moreover, through targeted optimization and systematic validation addressing practical performance bottlenecks, the metasurface enables both significant miniaturization potential and a high level of precision in nuclear spin frequency stability. When integrated into an NMR co-magnetometer, the system exhibits an ultra-stable frequency instability of 2.239 × 10−6 Hz, demonstrating concurrent breakthroughs in device integration and sensing capability. This work establishes a new paradigm for fully integrated optical pumping and provides a scalable pathway toward chip-scale quantum sensors.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5915-5925
Number of pages11
JournalMaterials Horizons
Volume13
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - 22 Jun 2026

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