We describe the development of a simple atomic magnetometer using $^{ 87}$Rb vapor suitable for Earth magnetic field monitoring. The magnetometer is based on time-domain determination of the transient precession frequency of the atomic alignment around the measured field. A sensitivity of 1.5 nT/$\sqrt{ Hz}$ is demonstrated on the measurement of the Earth magnetic field in the laboratory. We discuss the different parameters determining the magnetometer precision and accuracy and predict a sensitivity of 30 pT/$\sqrt{ Hz}$
Categories: physics.atom-ph physics.geo-ph