The authors describe an atomic magnetometer, the evanescent wave magnetometer, which uses an evanescent wave to measure the Larmor frequency of Rb atoms near the cell surface. The submicron penetration depth of the probe beam allows the evanescent wave magnetometer to achieve a spatial resolution of several tens of microns or better, and greatly reduces the inhomogeneous broadeningdue to magnetic field inhomogeneities. Its noise density in the present experiment is for frequencies between 1 and , and decreases to less than as the frequency increases to .
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