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arXiv:2310.05008

High-Sensitive Microwave Electrometry with Enhanced Instantaneous Bandwidth

Bowen Yang, Yuhan Yan, Li, Xuejie, Ling Xiao, Xiaolin Li, Chen, L. Q., Jianliao Deng, Hua-Dong Cheng

Published Oct 8, 2023• 2 citations
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Abstract

Rydberg microwave (MW) sensors are superior to conventional antenna-based techniques because of their wide operating frequency range and outstanding potential sensitivity. Here, we demonstrate a Rydberg microwave receiver with a high sensitivity of $62\,\mathrm{nV} \mathrm{cm}^{-1} \mathrm{Hz}^{-1/2}$ and broad instantaneous bandwidth of up to $10.2\,\mathrm{MHz}$. Such excellent performance was achieved by the amplification of one generated sideband wave induced by the strong coupling field in the six-wave mixing process of the Rydberg superheterodyne receiver, which was well predicted by our theory. Our system, which possesses a uniquely enhanced instantaneous bandwidth and high-sensitivity features that can be improved further, will promote the application of Rydberg microwave electrometry in radar and communication.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2310.05008

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Rydberg microwave (MW) sensors are superior to conventional antenna-based techniques because of their wide operating frequency range and outstanding potential sensitivity. Here, we demonstrate a Rydberg microwave receiver with a high sensitivity of 62 nVcm−1Hz−1/262\,\mathrm{nV} \mathrm{cm}^{-1} \mathrm{Hz}^{-1/2}62nVcm−1Hz−1/2 and broad instantaneous bandwidth of up to 10.2 MHz10.2\,\mathrm{MHz}10.2MHz. Such excellent performance was achieved by the amplification of one generated sideband wave induced by the strong coupling field in the six-wave mixing process of the Rydberg superheterodyne receiver, which was well predicted by our theory. Our system, which possesses a uniquely enhanced instantaneous bandwidth and high-sensitivity features that can be improved further, will promote the application of Rydberg microwave electrometry in radar and communication.
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Rydberg atoms, with their giant transition electric dipole moments and abundant energy-level transitions, offer exceptional potential for microwave (MW) electric field sensing, combining high sensitivity and broad frequency coverage. However, simultaneously achieving high sensitivity and broad instantaneous bandwidth in a Rydberg-based MW sensor remains a critical challenge. Here, we propose a multi-dressed-state engineered superheterodyne detection scheme for Rydberg electrometry to overcome this challenge. It is found that the key to simultaneously achieving large instantaneous bandwidth and high sensitivity lies in the coherence of dressed states and the interference between transition channels of dressed states. By strategically engineering the multiple dressed states of Rydberg atoms, we demonstrate a thermal 87Rb\mathrm{^{87}Rb}87Rb vapor-based sensor with a sensitivity of 222.6 \,nV \,cm−1 ^{-1}\,−1Hz−1/2^{-1/2}−1/2 and a record instantaneous bandwidth of 76.8 \,MHz with the local microwave frequency 16.03 \,GHz. This advancement paves the way for Rydberg-atom technologies in radar, wireless communication, and spectrum monitoring.
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Rydberg atoms have attracted considerable attention in recent years as a novel platform for microwave sensing, owing to their unique physical merits: large transition dipole moments between Rydberg levels and broad frequency coverage. As a critical figure of merit for Rydberg microwave sensors, instantaneous bandwidth serves as a key benchmark for evaluating their viability in practical applications. Previous studies on instantaneous bandwidth remain limited to single-frequency operation, with typical demonstrated values of only tens of megahertz, a constraint that hampers the real-world deployment of this sensing technology. Here, we experimentally achieve an instantaneous bandwidth of over 100 \,MHz across a broad frequency range of 2.7-20 \,GHz and realize a sensitivity in the hundreds of nV \,cm−1 ^{-1}\,−1Hz−1/2^{-1/2}−1/2 range. The physical mechanism lies in the dressed-state coherence and the interference effect between different transition channels. Our work substantially broadens the instantaneous bandwidth of Rydberg microwave sensors and paves the way for their practical deployment in fields such as radar and wireless communications.
Highly sensitive detection of microwave (MW) fields throughout ultra-wideband spectrum is always an important subject in metrology, electromagnetism and cosmology. Rydberg atomic electrometers, which implement electric field measurements by detecting the disturbance of atomic energy levels, have the potentials to breakthrough the sensitivity and size limits of conventional sensors. However, due to the discrete structure of the energy levels, current measurements can only exhibit high sensitivity at the discontinuous frequencies which correspond to certain transitions. In this work, by implementing energy level modulation of Rydberg atom through Zeeman effect, we achieve continuous highly sensitive MW fields detection within 1-40 GHz ultra-wideband spectrum where the detection sensitivity is roundly below 65 nV cm-1 Hz-1/2, which is 2-3 orders of magnitude lower than that of the state-of-the-art continuous measurement architectures. The proposed method is expected to expand the working bandwidth from MHz to THz and therefore greatly accelerate the practical applications in the areas of radar and electronic reconnaissance. Detecting microwave fields across an ultra-wideband spectrum is crucial for advancements in metrology, electromagnetism, and cosmology. Here, the authors utilize Zeeman effect modulation of Rydberg atoms to achieve continuous, highly sensitive detection from 1-40 GHz, significantly enhancing sensitivity and potentially transforming radar and electronic reconnaissance applications.
In the field of Instrumentation & Measurement (I&M), overcoming the inherent trade-off between instantaneous bandwidth and sensitivity in Rydberg atom-based microwave electrometry remains a significant challenge. We propose a novel method of co-optimizing the Rabi frequencies of dual microwave fields (LO and SIG). This enables simultaneous enhancement of instantaneous bandwidth and sensitivity in a Rydberg-based receiver. In experimental settings, the significant power disparity between heterodyne fields typically necessitates an increase in the power of the local oscillator (LO) field. Conventional measurement techniques under such high power differentials can induce high-order harmonics—a phenomenon associated with the Floquet effect—resulting in deviations from resonant behavior and an increase in noise. This, in turn, reduces the atomic population distribution and constrains the system bandwidth. Leveraging the sensitivity enhancement mechanisms provided by electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and Autler–Townes (AT) splitting, we experimentally characterized the relationship between the Rabi frequencies of the LO and the target signal (SIG) microwave fields. Our approach enables the optimization and fine-tuning of parameters of the auxiliary microwave field to mitigate performance degradation caused by these nonlinear effects, thereby extending the frequency response of the system beyond the limitations of conventional resonance-based methods. As a result, our team has achieved an instantaneous bandwidth of 7.1 MHz coupled with a sensitivity of 51nV cm−1Hz−1/2under a -41 dBm power difference condition. This work establishes a new instrumentation framework for high-dynamic-range sensing, directly addressing I&M limitations in nonlinear artifact suppression.