We present an optically pumped magnetometer working in a new operational mode—the light-shift dispersed Mz (LSD-Mz) mode. It is realized combining various features; (1) high power off-resonant optical pumping; (2) Mz configuration, where pumping light and magnetic field of interest are oriented parallel to each other; (3) use of small alkali metal vapor cells of identical properties in integrated array structures, where two such cells are pumped by circularly polarized light of opposite helicity; and (4) subtraction of the Mz signals of these two cells. The LSD-Mz magnetometer’s performance depends on the inherent and very complex interplay of input parameters. In order to find the configuration of optimal magnetometer resolution, a sensitivity analysis of the input parameters by means of Latin Hypercube Sampling was carried out. The resulting datasets of the multi-dimensional parameter space exploration were assessed by a subsequent physically reasonable interpretation. Finally, the best shot-noise limited magnetic field resolution was determined within that parameter space. As the result, using two 50 mm3 integrated vapor cells a magnetic field resolution below 10 fT/√Hz at Earth’s magnetic field strength is possible.

The current-phase relation (CPR) for asymmetric 45 • Josephson junctions between two d-wave superconductors has been predicted to exhibit an anomalous periodicity. We have used the singlejunction interferometer to investigate the CPR for this kind of junctions in YBa2Cu3O7−x thin films. Half-fluxon periodicity has been experimentally found, providing a novel source of evidence for the d-wave symmetry of the pairing state of the cuprates.

We demonstrate a way of operating an optically pumped magnetometer with miniaturized cesium cell using the light-narrowing effect. The magnetometer setup shows improvement of shot-noise-limited sensitivity (42 fT/ √ Hz in a cell of only 9.3 mm 3 volume) due to the suppression of spin-exchange relaxation to a large extent and the use of a strikingly increased fraction of alkali-metal atoms for signal generation, working even in μT magnetic fields, by using only a single high-intensity laser beam both for pumping and probing of atomic spins.

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We compare the performance of two methods for the synchronization of the atomic spins in optically pumped magnetometers: intensity modulation of the pump light and the classical M(x) method using B(1) field modulation. Both techniques use the same set-up and measure the resulting features of the light after passing a micro-fabricated Cs cell. The intensity-modulated pumping shows several advantages: better noise-limited magnetic field sensitivity, misalignment between pumping and spin synchronization is excluded, and magnetometer arrays without any cross-talk can be easily set up.