Study of Magnetic Noise of a Multi-Annular Ferrite Shield

Abstract

Ferrites are promising nonmetallic materials used for the fabrication of low-noise magnetic shields because they possess high permeability and high electrical resistivity. However, large-sized ferrite components are difficult to fabricate or machine. In this study, we develop a cylindrical ferrite shield that consists of five annuli and two lids with an inner volume of \phi 11.2 cm \times22.5 cm. Although this structure contains gaps between different components, it eases considerably the fabrication and machining process as compared to the entire module. The magnetic noise is measured by a spin-exchange relaxation-free atomic magnetometer, and the detrimental effects of the gaps are analyzed quantificationally using the finite element method. Our research results indicate that compared with the ferrite shield without gaps, the magnetization noise increases by 34.1%. Nonetheless, the magnetic noise at the center of the ferrite shield achieves 5.5f^{\mathrm{-1/2}} fT, which is much lower than that of \mu -metal shields with a similar size. If the gap width can be reduced to be smaller than 0.01 mm, the increase of the magnetization noise will be less than 4.9%, which can be negligible in practical applications. Our study provides a low-cost, readily available, and low-noise ferrite shield structure.