Noise-optimized ultrastable low-noise current amplifier

Quieting an environmental magnetic field without shielding

We construct an active magnetic compensation device and propose an efficient magnetic compensation method that suppresses a wider range of frequencies and amplitudes of time-varying magnetic fields than conventional methods. This system can compensate for all frequencies in the bandwidth of the sensors used by analyzing and extracting the spectral characteristics of the ambient field. We compensate simultaneously for various types of interference in rotation and achieve a reduction of the 50-Hz power-frequency field noise by 36 dB. Meanwhile, the real-time compensation of the field gradient is also investigated. Due to the effectiveness and extensive applicability of this method, it holds great promise for applications in atomic magnetometers, electron microscopes, and atomic clocks.

The next generation of current measurement for ionization chambers

Re-entrant ionization chambers (ICs) are essential to radionuclide metrology and nuclear medicine for maintaining standards and measuring half-lives. The requirements of top-level metrology demand that systems must be precise and stable to 0.1 % over many years, and linear from 10^-14 A to 10^-8 A. Thus, laboratories depend on bespoke current measurement systems and often rely on sealed sources to generate reference currents. To maintain and improve present capabilities, metrologists need to overcome two looming challenges: ageing electronics and decreasing availability of sealed sources. Possible solutions using Ultrastable Low-Noise Current Amplifiers (ULCAs), resistive-feedback electrometers, and (quantum) single-electron pumps are reviewed. Broader discussions of IC design and methodology are discussed. ULCAs show promise and resistive-feedback systems which take advantage of standard resistor calibrations offer an alternative.