Detection of low-conductivity objects using eddy current measurements with an optical magnetometer

Detection and imaging of an electrically conductive object at a distance can be achieved by inducing eddy currents in it and measuring the associated magnetic field. We have detected low-conductivity objects with an optical magnetometer based on room-temperature cesium atomic vapor and a noise-canceling differential technique which increased the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by more than three orders of magnitude. We detected small containers with a few mL of salt water with conductivity ranging from 4-24 S/m with a good SNR. This demonstrates that our optical magnetometer should be capable of detecting objects with conductivity <1 S/m with a SNR >1 and opens up new avenues for using optical magnetometers to image low-conductivity biological tissue including the human heart which would enable noninvasive diagnostics of heart diseases.