Magnetic field measurements in Rb vapor by splitting Hanle resonances under the presence of a perpendicular scanning magnetic field

Abstract: We experimentally and computationally study the effect of an additional transversemagnetic field (TMF) on the Hanle resonance for a Fg = 2 →Fe = 3 transition of87RbD2 line for magnetic field scansperpendicular to the propagation direction of the optical field. It is shown that with aπ-polarizedlight, no resonance signal is observed in absence of the TMF. When the TMF is applied, twopeaks are observed on either side of zero scanning magnetic field in the transmissionspectrum. The separation between the two peaks is linearly proportional to magnitude ofthe TMF, which can be used for magnetometry. We applied this technique to measure magneticfield from 0.1 to 0.5 G with a pure Rb vapor cell and from 10 to 30 mG with a Rb cellcontaining buffer gas. These observations are attributed to the population redistributionamong the ground state sublevels due to the TMF. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]