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arXiv:2405.02901 · Optics Express

Warm Rydberg atom-based quadrature amplitude-modulated receiver

Jan Nowosielski, Marcin Jastrzębski, Pavel Halavach, Karol Łukanowski, Marcin Jarzyna, Mateusz Mazelanik, Wojciech Wasilewski, Michal P. Parniak

Published Jul 25, 2024• 17 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Rydberg atoms exhibit both remarkable sensitivity to electromagnetic fields making them promising candidates for revolutionizing field sensors and, unlike conventional antennas, they neither disturb the measured field nor necessitate extensive calibration procedures. In this study, we propose a receiver design for data-modulated signal reception near the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi frequency band, harnessing the capabilities of warm Rydberg atoms. Our focus lies on exploring various quadrature amplitude modulations and transmission frequencies through heterodyne detection. We offer a comprehensive characterization of our setup, encompassing the atomic response frequency range, attainable electric field amplitudes, and sensitivity, which we estimate to be equal to 0.50 µV cm −1 Hz −0.5 . Additionally, we delve into analyzing communication errors using Voronoi diagrams and evaluating the communication channel capacity across different modulation schemes. We find that the maximum achievable capacity for a single communication channel equals 19.3 Mbps and can be achieved using the Q A M 4 scheme.

DOI
10.1364/oe.529977

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Rydberg atoms exhibit both remarkable sensitivity to electromagnetic fields making them promising candidates for revolutionizing field sensors and, unlike conventional antennas, they neither disturb the measured field nor necessitate extensive calibration procedures. In this study, we propose a receiver design for data-modulated signal reception near the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi frequency band, harnessing the capabilities of warm Rydberg atoms. Our focus lies on exploring various quadrature amplitude modulations and transmission frequencies through heterodyne detection. We offer a comprehensive characterization of our setup, encompassing the atomic response frequency range, attainable electric field amplitudes, and sensitivity, which we estimate to be equal to 0.50 µV cm −1 Hz −0.5 . Additionally, we delve into analyzing communication errors using Voronoi diagrams and evaluating the communication channel capacity across different modulation schemes. We find that the maximum achievable capacity for a single communication channel equals 19.3 Mbps and can be achieved using the Q A M 4 scheme.
Due to the exaggerated properties of highly excited atomic states, a Rydberg-atom-based microwave receiver holds the promise to achieve superior performances in microwave metrology and communication when compared to conventional antennas. However, developing long-distance communication applications based on Rydberg atomic receiver remains challenging, because it requires the simultaneous achievement of low bit error rate (BER), high symbol rate, and weak carrier amplitude. The key to tackle this problem is to encode the information with a proper scheme that maintains high sensitivity and robustness of the Rydberg atomic receiver. Here, we use Rydberg atom-based heterodyne detection for the reception of phase-modulated microwave field, and demonstrate more than one order of magnitude improvement in reception sensitivity compared to the previously investigated amplitude-modulation scheme. Therefore, we achieve low BER communication with high symbol rate of 12 k bit/s and weak carrier amplitude of $13\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{\ensuremath{\mu}}\mathrm{V}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ simultaneously. Furthermore, we also demonstrate that our scheme is compatible with frequency-division-multiplexing communication.
The highly-excited Rydberg states are with a unique property of radio-frequency (RF) resonance, and Rydberg atoms at room temperature are promising for developing a broadband RF electric field sensor and relevant metrology standards. In this paper, the working mechanism of an atomic amplitude-modulation(AM) radio receiver is investigated in detail, and various factors affecting the communication quality are discussed. The modulation RF signal can be directly retrieved by measuring the transmission of a probe laser at resonance of rubidium D2 transition using a fast photo-diode detector, without any conventional demodulation process. Various communication experiments are tested at a 10.22 GHz carrier, and a modulation bandwidth of 1 MHz and an acceptable data transfer rate of about 1 Mbps have been achieved using current detection techniques. Owing to a potential high sensitivity and ultra-broadband capability of free-space RF field sensing, the quantum receiver has great significance compared with conventional electronics-based receivers, including but not limited to a weak signal, long-distance, and broadband communication in free space or via a fiber link.
Rydberg atoms, with one highly excited, nearly ionized electron, have extreme sensitivity to electric fields, including microwave fields ranging from 100 MHz to over 1 THz. Here, we show that room-temperature Rydberg atoms can be used as sensitive, high bandwidth, microwave communication antennas. We demonstrate near photon-shot-noise limited readout of data encoded in amplitude-modulated 17 GHz microwaves, using an electromagnetically induced-transparency (EIT) probing scheme. We measure a photon-shot-noise limited channel capacity of up to 8.2 Mbit s−1 and implement an 8-state phase-shift-keying digital communication protocol. The bandwidth of the EIT probing scheme is found to be limited by the available coupling laser power and the natural linewidth of the rubidium D2 transition. We discuss how atomic communication receivers offer several opportunities to surpass the capabilities of classical antennas.
Atomic heterodyne dressed by a local oscillator resonant with Rydberg transitions allows high sensitivity and robust phase measurement of a microwave electric field, but it is typically limited to detection of discrete frequencies within the narrow bandwidth of Rydberg transitions. Here we demonstrate an atomic heterodyne scheme for continuous-frequency electric field measurement based on multilevel Rydberg atoms in a room-temperature vapor cell. Driven by two off-resonant microwaves acting as a tunable local oscillator field, the heterodyne receiver can retrieve the amplitude, phase, and frequency information of signal microwave in a continuous frequency band. In our experiment, the receiver achieves an electric field sensitivity of up to $1.5\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{V}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{Hz}}^{\ensuremath{-}1/2}$, 80-dB linear dynamic range, and over 1 GHz of continuous frequency range. We also demonstrate the reliable reception of continuously tunable phase-modulated carriers in the digital communication. This work will facilitate the application of atomic heterodyne in the areas such as radar technique, radio monitoring, and radio astronomy.
Rydberg atom based sensors allow for SI traceable measurements and show promise for applications in the field of communication and radar technologies. In this article, we investigate the bandwidth and sensitivity of a Rydberg atom-based sensor in a rubidium vapor cell using Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) spectroscopy. We employ a radio-frequency (RF) heterodyne measurement technique in combination with an optical homodyne setup to extend the achievable range between sensitivity and bandwidth in a Rydberg sensor. While the bandwidth of Rydberg sensors are limited by the transit time of atoms and the Rabi frequency of the coupling field, achieving higher bandwidth through smaller beam sizes is thought to compromise sensitivity due to reduced EIT signal strength. Using optical homodyne detection, we demonstrate that sensitivity is preserved while achieving a response bandwidth of 8 MHz. In addition, using the Rydberg sensor, we receive digital communication signals and present error vector magnitude (EVM) measurements as a function of varying symbol rates and bandwidth of the Rydberg sensor. Furthermore, the sensor's performance is compared with a conventional RF mixer. We establish that the bandwidth of a Rydberg sensor when receiving a pure tone is not the same as the bandwidth of the sensor when receiving a modulated signal. This difference results from the spreading of symbols in the frequency domain, leading to a reduction of the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and an accumulation of noise over the total span of the modulated signal.
We demonstrate an atom-based amplitude-modulation (AM) receiver for digital communication with a weak continuous frequency carrier using a Rydberg AC Stark effect in a vapor cell and achieve the operating carrier frequency continuously from 0.1 GHz to 5 GHz at a single Rydberg state. A strong local oscillator (LO) field E LO acts as a gain to shift the Rydberg level to a high sensitivity region, and a weak carrier field E Carr keeps the same frequency with the LO field. The digital baseband signals are encoded onto the E Carr using the amplitude modulation technique with the different modulation frequency. The response of Rydberg atom to the baseband signal is probed via a Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). The measured instantaneous bandwidth of the system is about 230 kHz. To demonstrate the performance of our system for an actual communication, we consider a color image as an example, the received image displays that the bit error rate (BER) is less than 5% when the maximum data transfer rate is about 238 kbps. Meanwhile, our system shows the weak carrier field of E Carr ≥ 13.52 μ V/cm can be used for the practical communication with BER less than 5%. Our works break the limitation that EIT-AT based atomic receivers only operate at the near resonant frequencies of the Rydberg transitions, making this emerging of quantum technology close to the practical application with high sensitivity and broad bandwidth.