The invention relates to a high-sensitivity, optically-pumped vector
magnetometer (OPM), in particular an OPM which defines its sensitive direction independently of the position of the external (Earth's)
magnetic field. The aim of the invention is to provide an optically-pumped vector
magnetometer (OPM) which defines its sensitive direction independently of the position of the external (Earth's)
magnetic field and which can be used in the Earth's
magnetic field without shielding while having a
high bandwidth and, at the same time, a very high degree of sensitivity in any
spatial direction. This is achieved in that the
magnetometer has an OPM sensor head (3), which is surrounded by an external magnetic field (4), and a
light source (5) for generating pump light and sample light, wherein the light of the
light source (5) passes through a converging lens (6), a polarization filter (7), a quarter-wave plate (8), a
Wollaston prism (9), a
wedge prism (10), a deflection
prism (11), and a half-wave plate (12) in order to generate the sample light, as pump light, by means of an alkali vapor-filled OPM
cell (13), which has a thermally insulated housing (14), said sample light striking photodiodes (16), in order to be detected, from the OPM
cell (13) via a deflection
prism (11). The OPM sensor head (3) is located in the interior (2) of a permanent
magnet (1), and the interior (2) encloses a statically
homogeneous magnetic field in the form of a constant holding field (15), which extends perpendicularly to the axis of rotation of the permanent
magnet (1) and overlaps with the external magnetic field (4). The
magnetic flux density of the holding field (15) is at least ten times greater than that of the external magnetic field (4), and the OPM sensor head (3) measures the value of the vectorial sum of the holding field (15) and the external magnetic field (4).