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International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility - EMC Europe (EMC Europe)

Applications with a Rydberg Atom-based Radio Frequency Antenna/Receiver

Matthew T. Simons, Abdulaziz H. Haddab, Joshua A. Gordon, Christopher L. Holloway

Published Sep 1, 2019• 13 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We discuss several recent extensions of quantum radio frequency (RF) electric field sensors to antenna/receiver applications. These Rydberg atom-based sensors have been previously studied for SI-traceable RF field measurements. We demonstrate the reception of modulated signals, including analog audio and pseudorandom bit sequences, RF phase detection, weak field detection, and the recording of musical instruments.

DOI
10.1109/emceurope.2019.8872108

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We report on the development of detection methods for amplitude and phase of pulsed radio-frequency (RF) electromagnetic fields with Rydberg atoms. We begin with an overview of the basic principles of Rydberg-atom-based sensing and measurement of RF electromagnetic fields. An overview of the underlying atomic physics and the method for amplitude as well as phase sensing of electromagnetic radiation with Rydberg atoms is provided. Atomic RF receivers using Rydberg atoms for analog and digital communications and sensing of modulated RF fields are discussed. Detection of pulse-modulated RF and time-domain RF pulse waveform imaging with a Rydberg-atom receiver are demonstrated. The transient response of the Rydberg-atom vapor to a modulated RF field is observed at the 10-nanosecond level, from which a new lower limit to the achievable instantaneous signal bandwidth of atomic RF receivers is established. Finally, we present and describe a new method to measure the phase of an RF field implemented to not require an RF reference wave. The method employs phase-coherent excitation pathways involving the optical fields in the atomic sensing medium with the signal RF field. The optical RF phase-sensing approach lends itself to the realization of atomic RF sensors, measurement and imaging devices that are relevant to applications in RF communications and sensing.
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.
We demonstrate a Rydberg atom-based sensor embedded in a parallel-plate waveguide (PPWG) for amplitude and phase detection of a radio-frequency (RF) electric field. This embedded atomic sensor is also capable of receiving modulated communications signals. In this configuration, the PPWG antenna serves two functions. First, the PPWG antenna acts as a source for a local oscillator (LO) field. The LO is required to use an atomic vapor cell (a glass cell containing a Rydberg atom vapor) as a Rydberg atom-based mixer, which detects the amplitude and phase of a second RF field incident from some remote location. The second function of the PPWG antenna is to capture the RF field arriving from a remote location and concentrate it at the location of the atomic vapor cell for detection. To demonstrate this, we show several examples of phase and amplitude measurements of an RF field with the embedded Rydberg-atom sensor. We also demonstrate the discrimination of the polarization of an RF field and the ability to receive phase-modulated carrier communications signals with this integrated atomic sensor. Embedding the atomic sensor in an antenna allows for the full characterization of a radio frequency field, in that the magnitude, phase, and polarization of an RF field can be measured with one compact integrated quantum-based sensor. Furthermore, the embedded sensor head allows one to easily vary the LO in order to maximize the ability to measure phase and amplitude of the field or modulated signal.
Rydberg atom electric field sensors are tunable quantum sensors that can perform sensitive radio frequency measurements. Their qualities have piqued interest at longer wavelengths where their small size compares favorably to impedance-matched antennas. Here, we compare the signal detection sensitivity of cm-scale Rydberg sensors to similarly sized room-temperature electrically small antennas with active and passive receiver backends. We present and analyze effective circuit models for each sensor type, facilitating a fair sensitivity comparison for cm-scale sensors. We calculate that contemporary Rydberg sensor implementations are less sensitive than unmatched antennas with active amplification. However, we find that idealized Rydberg sensors operating with a maximized atom number and at the standard quantum limit may perform well beyond the capabilities of antenna-based sensors at room temperature, the sensitivities of both lying below typical atmospheric background noise.