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arXiv:2610.33552

Long-Baseline Phase-Coherent Microwave Reception Using Rydberg Atoms

Darmindra D. Arumugam, Brook Feyissa

Published Oct 24, 2026• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A long baseline phase-coherent microwave receiver is demonstrated using a remotely interrogated cesium Rydberg atom sensor over an 8 m free-space optical link. A 3.989 GHz local oscillator (LO) is intensity-modulated onto an 852 nm optical probe and recovered remotely for atomic superheterodyne detection. A 509 nm coupling laser establishes a Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) system addressing the 6S1/2 to 6P3/2 to 56D5/2 ladder, with microwave coupling to 57P3/2. A test signal offset by 5 kHz generates an optically detected intermediate-frequency (IF) response returned to the reference station for centralized coherent acquisition. This eliminates independent remote oscillators, electronic IF acquisition, and distributed clock synchronization. Over 10 min, the differential phase between remote and local reference exhibits a standard deviation of 0.476 deg and a minimum overlapping phase Allan deviation of 0.048 deg at approximately 200 s averaging. Following optical-link interruption, the differential phase recovers without recalibration, with a measured pre- and post-interruption difference of 0.01 deg. These results demonstrate phase coherent remotely interrogated atomic microwave reception with reduced instrumentation, supporting future distributed interferometry, multistatic radar, and coherent sensor arrays.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2610.33552

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A long baseline phase-coherent microwave receiver is demonstrated using a remotely interrogated cesium Rydberg atom sensor over an 8 m free-space optical link. A 3.989 GHz local oscillator (LO) is intensity-modulated onto an 852 nm optical probe and recovered remotely for atomic superheterodyne detection. A 509 nm coupling laser establishes a Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) system addressing the 6S1/2 to 6P3/2 to 56D5/2 ladder, with microwave coupling to 57P3/2. A test signal offset by 5 kHz generates an optically detected intermediate-frequency (IF) response returned to the reference station for centralized coherent acquisition. This eliminates independent remote oscillators, electronic IF acquisition, and distributed clock synchronization. Over 10 min, the differential phase between remote and local reference exhibits a standard deviation of 0.476 deg and a minimum overlapping phase Allan deviation of 0.048 deg at approximately 200 s averaging. Following optical-link interruption, the differential phase recovers without recalibration, with a measured pre- and post-interruption difference of 0.01 deg. These results demonstrate phase coherent remotely interrogated atomic microwave reception with reduced instrumentation, supporting future distributed interferometry, multistatic radar, and coherent sensor arrays.
Measurement sensitivity is crucial for the practical application of Rydberg atomic microwave superheterodyne receiver systems in communication, radar, and navigation. Based on laser-atom-microwave interaction mechanisms, the influence of laser powers and local-oscillator (LO) microwave field intensity on measurement sensitivity is systematically studied in this paper. Measurement sensitivity is analyzed through electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) spectral characteristics, specifically EIT amplitude and full-width-half-maximum (FWHM),larger amplitudes and narrower FWHM indicate improved signal-to-noise ratios. For a 60D-state Rydberg atomic system with fixed probe and coupling laser beam waists (800 µm and 875 µm), optimal parameters are determined: probe laser power of 60 µW(Rabi frequency: 2π×7.02 MHz), coupling laser power of 40 mW (Rabi frequency: 2π×0.66 MHz), and LO microwave Rabi frequency of 2π×8.34 MHz. Experimental results demonstrate a 4.6 dB sensitivity enhancement, advancing from −137.5dBm/Hz to −142.1 dBm/Hz at 3.21 GHz microwave field. This improvement is attributed to precise alignment of laser-atom and microwave-atom interactions, bridging the gap toward quantum sensitivity limits.
High-precision phase measurement of microwave fields underpins a wide range of applications, including wireless communications, distributed radar, plasma diagnostics, and antenna metrology. Existing Rydberg-atom-based approaches, however, often face trade-offs among phase resolution, measurement range, and system complexity. Here we demonstrate a Rydberg-atom-based microwave Mach-Zehnder-type interferometer using a dual-local-oscillator configuration. The two local oscillators establish two coherent interferometric pathways in the Rydberg medium. Their coherent mixing with the signal field produces an interferometric intermediate-frequency output governed by a phase-to-intensity transfer characteristic that enables critical-point enhancement. This scheme supports direct phase retrieval with a resolution exceeding 0.1∘0.1^\circ0.1∘ and unambiguous full 360∘360^\circ360∘ phase coverage with the reconfigurable dual-LO architecture. Moreover, near the critical interference point, the system exhibits a sharply enhanced phase-to-amplitude transduction, where weak amplitude variations are converted into pronounced phase responses, yielding a sensitivity enhancement exceeding 25 dB. Besides, the same interferometric transfer mechanism enables microwave propagation-distance and polarization metrology, achieving a propagation-distance precision below 20 μμμm at 5.7 GHz together with a polarization-angle resolution exceeding 0.1∘0.1^\circ0.1∘. This approach eliminates the need for complex optical configurations and lock-in detection, providing a simple, scalable, and reconfigurable Mach-Zehnder-type quantum microwave interferometry framework for multifunctional high-precision microwave metrology.
We propose and investigate a Rydberg atom sensor based on a loop-level structure, which utilizes the eigenfrequencies of the energy levels as a reference. This design eliminates the need for the local oscillator (LO) electric field required in the traditional superheterodyne structure while maintaining a linear relationship between the readout signal and the microwave (MW) electric field to be measured, along with exhibiting significantly lower harmonic distortion. For experimental validation, we implemented a cesium atomic system based on the loop five-level structure. The system achieved a sensitivity of 62 nVcm -1 Hz -1/2 and maintained 30 dB of harmonic suppression even near the nonlinear operational region under the strong electric field, which is approximately 20 dB higher than that of the superheterodyne structure. This work demonstrates that loop-level-based atomic sensors enable high-sensitivity and wide-dynamic-range (including nonlinear region) MW detection, making them particularly suitable for receiving frequency- and phase-modulated signals that are insensitive to power variations.
Recently, Rydberg atoms have attracted increasing interests for applications as electric field sensors, RF spectrometers, and microwave receivers. In this paper, we present experimental studies of a cesium (Cs) Rydberg atomic microwave receiver and its temporal response characteristics to amplitude modulation (AM), frequency modulation (FM), and binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation. The receiver is associated with the Cs Rydberg transitions of n2D5/2 – (n+1)2P3/2 at various frequencies, which is generated by double-resonance laser excitations in a room temperature Cs vapor cell. We use the Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) and Autler-Townes (AT) effects to directly receive modulated microwave signals and recover the data encoded in the carriers. We demonstrated AM and FM digital data transmissions at data rates up to 1 Mbps and BPSK modulation and demodulation with a clock frequency of 250 kHz. Modulation depths up to 90% are experimentally observed and studied as a function of the modulation clock frequency. We also perform modeling to show that Cs atoms have accessible Rydberg transitions at frequencies covering the range from below GHz to THz for wideband microwave receiver applications across RF systems.
In recent years, electric field measurement techniques based on Rydberg atoms have shown unique advantages in high sensitivity and wideband applications and miniaturization. The Rydberg atom receiver senses the electromagnetic signal using the quantum coherence effect, which overcomes the inherent defects of traditional electronic receivers in terms of thermal noise, insertion loss of microwave devices, and the use of wavelength-dependent antennas, thus providing the Rydberg atomic receivers the potential to become the next generation of microwave receivers. For some particular application scenarios such as radar and communication, superheterodyne reception is a critical technical approach, and the linear dynamic range is an essential factor in evaluating the performance of the superheterodyne receivers. It is challenging to promote the Rydberg atomic receiver without figuring out the influence of system parameters on the linear dynamic range. This paper starts with the response mechanism of the Rydberg atomic superheterodyne receiver, and a theoretical model is established to simulate the atom-microwave responses. Then the harmonics' generation mechanism is discussed, and the atomic linear dynamic range under different probe light Rabi frequencies is studied further. Furthermore, a method to evaluate the antiblocking performance of the system is proposed. This work is expected to provide theoretical guidance for the design and performance optimization of the Rydberg atomic superheterodyne receiver.
Rydberg atoms show great promise for use as self-calibrated electric field sensors for a broad range of frequencies. Their response is traceable to the international system of units making them a valuable tool for a variety of applications including traceable channel sounding. The Rydberg atom sensor is an electrically small point probe. Its detection volume is defined by the overlap of probing and coupling lasers, which can be as small as hundreds of microns. We present measurements of the beam-formed output of a horn antenna in the far field at 28 GHz. We move a Rydberg atom sensor over a synthetic aperture to obtain high angular resolution of the received signal and employ electromagnetic induced transparency with AC stark shifting and a local oscillator signal radiated onto the atoms for magnitude and phase detection at each location in the area. These results demonstrate the use of these Rydberg atom sensors in a synthetic aperture configuration and inform their eventual use for traceable channel sounding measurements.