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arXiv:2605.10350

Signal-Dependent Shot Noise Modeling of Rydberg Atomic Quantum Receivers: A Design Perspective

Qihao Peng, Qu Luo, Tierui Gong, Neng Ye, Jizhou Wu, Cunhua Pan, Maged Elkashlan, Pei Xiao, Chau Yuen, George K. Karagiannidis, Jiangzhou Wang

Published May 11, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

In this paper, we develop a communication-oriented complex baseband equivalent model for superheterodyne Rydberg atomic quantum receivers (RAQRs). The model explicitly captures photodetection-induced signal-dependent shot noise and its coupling with the optical operating point. By leveraging an atomic superheterodyne architecture and a strong local oscillator, we construct a complex baseband representation for both the received signal and the signal-dependent shot noise under both direct incoherent optical detection and balanced coherent optical detection. The derived model reveals that the optical operating point jointly determines the normalized effective receive gain and the equivalent noise background, thereby establishing a traceable gain-noise tradeoff governed by system design. More importantly, the proposed model shows that neglecting signal-dependent shot noise may lead to inaccurate operating-point design. Finally, by extending to the multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) case, we derive a lower bound on the achievable rate while considering the signal-dependent shot noise. Our analysis \textcolor{black}{reveals} that the non-zero asymptotic rate of RAQ-MIMO and its superiority over conventional RF-MIMO hinge on the normalized noise floor of the RAQ receive chain falling below that of RF MIMO. Simulation results validate our analysis and yield practical, closed-form design guidelines for RAQR front ends, revealing parameter regimes in which RAQ-MIMO outperforms conventional MIMO systems.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2605.10350

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In this paper, we develop a communication-oriented complex baseband equivalent model for superheterodyne Rydberg atomic quantum receivers (RAQRs). The model explicitly captures photodetection-induced signal-dependent shot noise and its coupling with the optical operating point. By leveraging an atomic superheterodyne architecture and a strong local oscillator, we construct a complex baseband representation for both the received signal and the signal-dependent shot noise under both direct incoherent optical detection and balanced coherent optical detection. The derived model reveals that the optical operating point jointly determines the normalized effective receive gain and the equivalent noise background, thereby establishing a traceable gain-noise tradeoff governed by system design. More importantly, the proposed model shows that neglecting signal-dependent shot noise may lead to inaccurate operating-point design. Finally, by extending to the multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) case, we derive a lower bound on the achievable rate while considering the signal-dependent shot noise. Our analysis \textcolor{black}{reveals} that the non-zero asymptotic rate of RAQ-MIMO and its superiority over conventional RF-MIMO hinge on the normalized noise floor of the RAQ receive chain falling below that of RF MIMO. Simulation results validate our analysis and yield practical, closed-form design guidelines for RAQR front ends, revealing parameter regimes in which RAQ-MIMO outperforms conventional MIMO systems.
Rydberg atomic quantum receivers (RAQRs) emerge as a radical solution for detecting radio frequency (RF) signals, showing great potential in assisting classical wireless communications and sensing. However, the current studies of RAQRs mainly focus on realizing fundamental functionalities via experiments, where the results cannot be readily harnessed for assisting wireless communications and sensing. Moreover, the advantages of RAQR-based wireless receivers have not been fully characterized. To fill the gap, we introduce the superheterodyne version of RAQRs and present the associated end-to-end transmission scheme. We then develop a corresponding end-to-end equivalent baseband signal model relying on a realistic transmission flow. Our scheme and model provide explicit design guidance for RAQR-aided wireless systems. We finally verify the effectiveness of the proposed signal model with respect to the waveform of the photodetector, input-output relationship (transfer function), and the normalized mean-squared error between the nonlinear transfer function and its linear approximation.
Rydberg atomic quantum receivers (RAQRs) have emerged as a promising solution for evolving wireless receivers from the classical to the quantum domain. To further unleash their great potential in wireless communications, we propose a flexible architecture for Rydberg atomic quantum multiple-input multiple-output (RAQ-MIMO) receivers in the multi-user uplink. Then the corresponding signal model of the RAQ-MIMO system is constructed by paving the way from quantum physics to classical wireless communications. Explicitly, we outline the associated operating principles and transmission flow. We also validate the linearity of our model and its feasible region. Based on our model, we derive closed-form asymptotic formulas for the ergodic achievable rate (EAR) of both the maximum-ratio combining (MRC) and zero-forcing (ZF) receivers operating in uncorrelated fading channels (UFC) and the correlated fading channels (CFC), as well as in the standard quantum limit (SQL) and photon shot limit (PSL) regimes, respectively. Furthermore, we unveil that the EAR scales logarithmically without bound with the product of effective number NatomN_{\text{atom}}Natom​ and coherence time T2T_2T2​ of the atomic ensemble in the SQL regime, but exhibits non-monotonic trade-off between the collective atomic enhancement and optical-depth-dependent attenuation in the PSL regime. More particularly, the transmit power of users can be scaled down quadratically with NatomτN_{\text{atom}} τNatom​τ, τ∈{T2,C(Ωℓ)Ap}τ\in \{ T_2, \frac{ {\cal C} (Ω_{\ell}) }{A_p} \}τ∈{T2​,Ap​C(Ωℓ​)​}, but the EAR per user retains fixed, by increasing NatomN_{\text{atom}}Natom​ while retaining the sensor number M∝NatomτM \propto N_{\text{atom}} τM∝Natom​τ in the SQL regime or M∝exp⁡(NatomχˉAp)M \propto \exp \big( \frac{N_{\text{atom}} {\bar χ}}{A_p} \big)M∝exp(Ap​Natom​χˉ​​) in the PSL regime....
Rydberg atomic quantum receivers (RAQRs) offer quantum-limited sensitivity and broadband tunability. It is not obvious whether this device-level advantage also improves network reliability, since in dense deployments, aggregate interference can push the atomic transducer out of its small-signal regime. This paper addresses the question by embedding the RAQR front end into a stochastic geometry (SG) coverage analysis. Starting with the atomic master equation and balanced coherent optical detection, we derive a third-order complex baseband model that retains both the linear gain and the leading cubic nonlinearity. A Bussgang decomposition converts the per-element nonlinear response into an equivalent linear gain plus a distance-dependent distortion noise. Using this equivalent model, we derive the post maximal-ratio combining (MRC) SINR and obtain tractable expressions for the conditional and spatially averaged coverage probabilities. The analytical results show that RAQRs outperform conventional receivers in sparse deployments. However, when the base station (BS) density becomes large, nonlinear distortion reduces this advantage and may make RAQRs perform worse. Simulation results validate the analytical expressions and confirm that the central design tradeoff is between linear gain and cubic nonlinearity.
Rydberg atomic quantum receivers exhibit great potential in assisting classical wireless communications due to their outstanding advantages in detecting radio frequency signals. To realize this potential, we integrate a Rydberg atomic quantum receiver into a classical multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) scheme to form a multi-user Rydberg atomic quantum MIMO (RAQ-MIMO) system for the uplink. To study this system, we first construct an equivalent baseband signal model, which facilitates convenient system design, signal processing and optimizations. We then study the ergodic achievable rates under both the maximum ratio combining (MRC) and zero-forcing (ZF) schemes by deriving their tight lower bounds. We next compare the ergodic achievable rates of the RAQ-MIMO and the conventional massive MIMO schemes by offering a closed-form expression for the difference of their ergodic achievable rates, which allows us to directly compare the two systems. Our results show that RAQ-MIMO allows the average transmit power of users to be>25d B m>25 \text{d B m}>25d B mlower than that of the conventional massive MIMO. Viewed from a different perspective, an extra∼8.8\sim 8.8∼8.8bits/s/Hz/user rate becomes achievable by ZF RAQ-MIMO.
Rydberg-atom quantum receivers (RAQRs) enable electric-field sensing with quantum-noise-limited performance, yet their optical readout provides only magnitude measurements whose fluctuations follow Rician statistics governed by atomic projection noise, optical shot noise, reference-field injection, and short coherence times. These non-Gaussian, phase-blind measurements invalidate classical single-shot RF detectors and necessitate multi-shot quantum sensing strategies. This work develops a physically consistent multi-shot statistical model for RAQRs and derives both the optimal genie-aided likelihood-ratio test (LRT) and a practical phase-averaged LRT that removes dependence on the unknown RF-field phase. Closed-form test statistics and thresholds are obtained for both detectors, and the limits imposed by finite quantum shots-due to atomic dephasing and measurement backaction-are explicitly quantified. A fully non-coherent energy detector is also analysed, with exact detection probability derived using noncentral chi-square models. Monte Carlo results show that only 5-10 quantum shots yield major gains: the phase-averaged LRT closely approaches the genie bound and RAQR detection markedly outperforms classical RF energy detection under comparable received power. The proposed framework provides the first unified statistical basis for multi-shot Rydberg-based weak-field detection and underscores the potential of RAQRs for quantum-enhanced signal detection.
Rydberg atomic quantum receivers (RAQRs) are capable of receiving multi-band radio-frequency (RF) signals simultaneously, which are expected to break Chu's limit for classical electronic antennas. However, signals from different users will interfere with each other in the optical intermediate frequency (IF) domain of the multi-band quantum receiver, which is termed the IF interference (IFI) problem. To address this problem, in this paper, we propose a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) architecture for Rydberg atomic quantum receiver (RAQ-MIMO) by exploiting the additional spatial diversity of MIMO receivers. Specifically, by applying the dynamic signal model of RAQRs, we clarify the physical relationship between the quantum local oscillator (LO) configurations and the multi-band gains with the concept of quantum transconductance. Then, with the quantum transconductance-based signal model, we formulate the spectral efficiency (SE) maximization problem and further propose the quantum weighted minimum mean square error (qWMMSE) algorithm, which jointly optimizes the quantum LO configurations and the classical precoder/combiner matrices. Furthermore, we test the qWMMSE algorithm within the standard space division multiple access (SDMA) scheme and the frequency division multiple access (FDMA) scheme. Simulation results demonstrate that the qWMMSE optimization framework can significantly improve the SE of RAQ-MIMO systems for both multiple access schemes, and that RAQ-MIMO systems can outperform classical electronic receiver-based multi-user MIMO systems by eliminating the mutual coupling effect between classical antennas.