India, July 8 -- Researchers have developed a new technology that could help measure the invisible forces of magnetism-from inside the human brain to the depths of outer space-without needing bulky shielding or ultra-quiet labs.

Magnetometers are useful devices with applications in areas ranging from fundamental physics to medical imaging and navigation. The most promising methods for magnetic field measurement are based on detecting polarization rotation of a probe light passing through alkali atoms in a very weak magnetic field. Magnetometers based on this method, referred to as Optically pumped atomic magnetometers (OPAMs) and Spin Exchange Relaxation Free (SERF) magnetometers, typically have high sensitivity but demand sophisticated ...