Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2001.03150 · Applied Physics Letters

Atomic microwave-to-optical signal transduction via magnetic-field coupling in a resonant microwave cavity

A. Tretiakov, C. A. Potts, T. S. Lee, M. J. Thiessen, J. P. Davis, L. J. LeBlanc

Published Apr 20, 2020• 20 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Atomic vapors offer many opportunities for manipulating electromagnetic signals across a broad range of electromagnetic spectra. Here, a microwave signal with an audio frequency modulation encodes information in an optical signal by exploiting an atomic microwave-to-optical double resonance and magnetic-field coupling that is amplified by a resonant high-Q microwave cavity. Using this approach, audio signals are encoded as amplitude or frequency modulations in a GHz carrier, transmitted through a cable or over free space, demodulated through cavity-enhanced atom-microwave interactions, and, finally, optically detected to extract the original information. This atom-cavity signal transduction technique provides a powerful means by which to transfer information between microwave and optical fields, all using a relatively simple experimental setup without active electronics.

DOI
10.1063/1.5144616

Related papers

Manipulating optical properties of rubidium through microwave interactions

Tretiakov, Andrei

Information transfer between a microwave field and light, also known as microwave-to optical transduction, is a key area of research in quantum communication technology aimed at developing an interface between the superconducting processing devices operating at microwave frequencies and optical photons used for transferring quantum information over distance. Atomic vapors offer a good platform for such interfaces since they naturally support transitions at microwave and optical frequencies. In this work, we explored microwave-to-optical transduction in rubidium ensembles. We proposed a transduction method based on microwave-optical double resonance, where we can control the ensemble optical properties via non-linear interactions with a microwave magnetic field. With this method, we demonstrate the transduction of an audio signal from frequency-modulated and amplitude-modulated microwave fields to optical intensity modulation. We also present a protocol for engineering atomic spin polarization with microwave-assisted optical pumping and consider its applications for polarization-selective frequency conversion and microwave-controlled optical rotation.

•Jan 1, 2021•0 citations

An Atomic Receiver for AM and FM Radio Communication

David Alexander Anderson, Rachel Sapiro, Georg A. Raithel

Radio reception relies on antennas for the collection of electromagnetic fields carrying information, and receiver elements for demodulation and retrieval of the transmitted information. Here, we demonstrate an atom-based receiver for AM and FM microwave communication with a 3 dB bandwidth in the baseband of ~100 kHz that provides optical circuit-free field pickup, multiband carrier capability, and inherently high field sensitivity. The atom-based receiver exploits field-sensitive cesium Rydberg vapors in a centimeter-sized glass cell, and electromagnetically induced transparency, a quantum-optical effect, as a readout of baseband signals modulated onto carriers with frequencies ranging over four octaves, from C-band to Q-band. Receiver bandwidth, dynamic range and sideband suppression are characterized, and acquisition of audio waveforms of human vocals demonstrated. The atomic receiver is a valuable receiver technology because it does not require antenna structures and is resilient against electromagnetic interference, while affording multiband operation in a single compact receiving element.

arXiv:1808.08589•IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation•Apr 16, 2020•203 citations

Dual-frequency modulation in microwave-optical double resonance for manipulation of atomic populations

Mahnaz Asadolah Salmanpour, Mohammad Mosleh, Seyedeh Mehri Hamidi

This study presents a dual-frequency modulation scheme in which both optical and microwave fields are simultaneously modulated in a microwave-optical double resonance system within a hot rubidium vapor cell. The combined modulation produces harmonic spectral features at the sum and difference of the individual modulation frequencies, indicating nonlinear coupling between the fields. Experimental results reveal that this approach enables modulation of atomic population dynamics and facilitates efficient population transfer between hyperfine levels. The observed frequency mixing highlights the system's sensitivity to dual modulation and suggests its potential for enhancing the spectral control of atomic transitions. These findings may support future developments in atomic clocks, high-precision magnetometers, and quantum information processing systems.

Scientific Reports•Jul 1, 2025•2 citations

All-dielectric resonant cavity electro-optic transduction between microwave and telecom

Mihir Khanna, Yang Hu, Thomas Purdy

Achieving efficient microwave–optical transduction is a critical challenge for quantum networks where information is shared optically across disparate microwave systems and for coherent optical detection and manipulation of microwave states. Resonant electro-optic systems are being pursued as a means of efficiently bridging these frequencies. Here, we present a platform that employs a bulk lithium niobate crystal whose large dielectric constant creates wavelength-scale confinement of microwave photons. By incorporating this crystal within a high-finesse Fabry–Pérot optical cavity, microwave photons couple to optical photons through the electro-optic effect. We demonstrate the ability to tune our system into triply resonant operation, where microwave photons, optical pump photons, and upconverted optical photons are simultaneously resonant with high quality factor electromagnetic modes of the system. The device achieves photon-number conversion efficiency at the percent level, comparable to that of state-of-the-art devices at room temperature—sufficient to resolve the thermal occupation of the microwave mode—by taking advantage of the high-power handling, low loss, and low noise of all-dielectric devices. These results establish our all-dielectric devices as a promising platform for high-precision sensing of optically detected microwave fields and as a viable route toward single-photon-level microwave–optical quantum transduction.

Optica•May 29, 2026•0 citations

Cavity-enhanced Rydberg atomic superheterodyne receiver

Yukang Liang, Qinxia Wang, Zhi‐Hui Wang +7 more

High-sensitivity measurements of the microwave electric field are important in applications of communication and metrology. The sensitivity of traditional Rydberg superheterodyne receivers in free space is effectively determined by the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which is often considered equivalent to sensitivity in practical sensing applications. In this work, we demonstrate a cavity-enhanced receiver, where an optical cavity significantly amplifies the interaction between the probe light and cesium atoms, which substantially improves the signal-to-noise ratio via enhancing the expansion coefficient κ . Here, κ is the edge slope of the single peak obtained by fitting the double-peak EIT-AT spectrum, characterizing the response of the probe light to the frequency detuning of the coupling laser. The sensitivity is thus boosted by a factor of approximately 19 dB. This study highlights the pivotal role of optical cavities in advancing Rydberg-based detection systems, offering a promising approach for high-sensitivity microwave electric field measurements.

arXiv:2502.20792•Optics Express•Mar 4, 2025•7 citations

Quantum-memory-assisted on-demand microwave-optical transduction

Hai-Tao Tu, Kai-Yu Liao, Si-Yuan Qiu +7 more

Microwave-optical transducers and quantum memories are essential for quantum repeaters enabling a quantum internet. Despite advances in both technologies, integrating these functionalities remains challenging. Here, we theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate an on-demand microwave-optical quantum transducer based on a Rydberg ensemble. Using cascaded electromagnetically induced transparency, we store microwave photons in a highly excited collective state and convert them into optical photons during retrieval. Leveraging an optical depth of millions for microwave photons and minimal single-photon-level dephasing, our transducer achieves around 90% area-normalized storage efficiency, 2.3 MHz bandwidth, and noise-equivalent temperature of 26 K under cavity-free conditions. Furthermore, our system is cryogenically compatible and extendable for high single-photon conversion efficiency without requiring optical cavity coupling. These findings advance practical on-demand quantum interfaces with broad applications across atomic and solid-state platforms. A quantum internet would link computers over optical fibers, which would require converting their signals into frequencies that can travel by fiber and storing those signals to keep them in sync. The authors built a proof-of-concept from a Rydberg ensemble of cold rubidium atoms, that does both jobs.

arXiv:2509.18834•Nature Communications•Aug 4, 2026•0 citations
Atomic vapors offer many opportunities for manipulating electromagnetic signals across a broad range of electromagnetic spectra. Here, a microwave signal with an audio frequency modulation encodes information in an optical signal by exploiting an atomic microwave-to-optical double resonance and magnetic-field coupling that is amplified by a resonant high-Q microwave cavity. Using this approach, audio signals are encoded as amplitude or frequency modulations in a GHz carrier, transmitted through a cable or over free space, demodulated through cavity-enhanced atom-microwave interactions, and, finally, optically detected to extract the original information. This atom-cavity signal transduction technique provides a powerful means by which to transfer information between microwave and optical fields, all using a relatively simple experimental setup without active electronics.
Information transfer between a microwave field and light, also known as microwave-to optical transduction, is a key area of research in quantum communication technology aimed at developing an interface between the superconducting processing devices operating at microwave frequencies and optical photons used for transferring quantum information over distance. Atomic vapors offer a good platform for such interfaces since they naturally support transitions at microwave and optical frequencies. In this work, we explored microwave-to-optical transduction in rubidium ensembles. We proposed a transduction method based on microwave-optical double resonance, where we can control the ensemble optical properties via non-linear interactions with a microwave magnetic field. With this method, we demonstrate the transduction of an audio signal from frequency-modulated and amplitude-modulated microwave fields to optical intensity modulation. We also present a protocol for engineering atomic spin polarization with microwave-assisted optical pumping and consider its applications for polarization-selective frequency conversion and microwave-controlled optical rotation.
Radio reception relies on antennas for the collection of electromagnetic fields carrying information, and receiver elements for demodulation and retrieval of the transmitted information. Here, we demonstrate an atom-based receiver for AM and FM microwave communication with a 3 dB bandwidth in the baseband of ~100 kHz that provides optical circuit-free field pickup, multiband carrier capability, and inherently high field sensitivity. The atom-based receiver exploits field-sensitive cesium Rydberg vapors in a centimeter-sized glass cell, and electromagnetically induced transparency, a quantum-optical effect, as a readout of baseband signals modulated onto carriers with frequencies ranging over four octaves, from C-band to Q-band. Receiver bandwidth, dynamic range and sideband suppression are characterized, and acquisition of audio waveforms of human vocals demonstrated. The atomic receiver is a valuable receiver technology because it does not require antenna structures and is resilient against electromagnetic interference, while affording multiband operation in a single compact receiving element.
This study presents a dual-frequency modulation scheme in which both optical and microwave fields are simultaneously modulated in a microwave-optical double resonance system within a hot rubidium vapor cell. The combined modulation produces harmonic spectral features at the sum and difference of the individual modulation frequencies, indicating nonlinear coupling between the fields. Experimental results reveal that this approach enables modulation of atomic population dynamics and facilitates efficient population transfer between hyperfine levels. The observed frequency mixing highlights the system's sensitivity to dual modulation and suggests its potential for enhancing the spectral control of atomic transitions. These findings may support future developments in atomic clocks, high-precision magnetometers, and quantum information processing systems.
Achieving efficient microwave–optical transduction is a critical challenge for quantum networks where information is shared optically across disparate microwave systems and for coherent optical detection and manipulation of microwave states. Resonant electro-optic systems are being pursued as a means of efficiently bridging these frequencies. Here, we present a platform that employs a bulk lithium niobate crystal whose large dielectric constant creates wavelength-scale confinement of microwave photons. By incorporating this crystal within a high-finesse Fabry–Pérot optical cavity, microwave photons couple to optical photons through the electro-optic effect. We demonstrate the ability to tune our system into triply resonant operation, where microwave photons, optical pump photons, and upconverted optical photons are simultaneously resonant with high quality factor electromagnetic modes of the system. The device achieves photon-number conversion efficiency at the percent level, comparable to that of state-of-the-art devices at room temperature—sufficient to resolve the thermal occupation of the microwave mode—by taking advantage of the high-power handling, low loss, and low noise of all-dielectric devices. These results establish our all-dielectric devices as a promising platform for high-precision sensing of optically detected microwave fields and as a viable route toward single-photon-level microwave–optical quantum transduction.
High-sensitivity measurements of the microwave electric field are important in applications of communication and metrology. The sensitivity of traditional Rydberg superheterodyne receivers in free space is effectively determined by the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which is often considered equivalent to sensitivity in practical sensing applications. In this work, we demonstrate a cavity-enhanced receiver, where an optical cavity significantly amplifies the interaction between the probe light and cesium atoms, which substantially improves the signal-to-noise ratio via enhancing the expansion coefficient κ . Here, κ is the edge slope of the single peak obtained by fitting the double-peak EIT-AT spectrum, characterizing the response of the probe light to the frequency detuning of the coupling laser. The sensitivity is thus boosted by a factor of approximately 19 dB. This study highlights the pivotal role of optical cavities in advancing Rydberg-based detection systems, offering a promising approach for high-sensitivity microwave electric field measurements.
Microwave-optical transducers and quantum memories are essential for quantum repeaters enabling a quantum internet. Despite advances in both technologies, integrating these functionalities remains challenging. Here, we theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate an on-demand microwave-optical quantum transducer based on a Rydberg ensemble. Using cascaded electromagnetically induced transparency, we store microwave photons in a highly excited collective state and convert them into optical photons during retrieval. Leveraging an optical depth of millions for microwave photons and minimal single-photon-level dephasing, our transducer achieves around 90% area-normalized storage efficiency, 2.3 MHz bandwidth, and noise-equivalent temperature of 26 K under cavity-free conditions. Furthermore, our system is cryogenically compatible and extendable for high single-photon conversion efficiency without requiring optical cavity coupling. These findings advance practical on-demand quantum interfaces with broad applications across atomic and solid-state platforms. A quantum internet would link computers over optical fibers, which would require converting their signals into frequencies that can travel by fiber and storing those signals to keep them in sync. The authors built a proof-of-concept from a Rydberg ensemble of cold rubidium atoms, that does both jobs.