We measure the near field distribution of a microwave horn with a resonant atomic probe. The microwave field emitted by a standard microwave horn is investigated utilizing Rydberg electromagnetically inducted transparency (EIT), an all-optical Rydberg detection, in a room temperature caesium vapor cell. The ground 6 S 1 / 2 , excited 6 P 3 / 2 , and Rydberg 56 D 5 / 2 states constitute a three-level system, used as an atomic probe to detect microwave electric fields by analyzing microwave dressed Autler–Townes (AT) splitting. We present a measurement of the electric field distribution of the microwave horn operating at 3.99 GHz in the near field, coupling the transition 56 D 5 / 2 → 57 P 3 / 2 . The microwave dressed AT spectrum reveals information on both the strength and polarization of the field emitted from the microwave horn simultaneously. The measurements are compared with field measurements obtained using a dipole metal probe, and with simulations of the electromagnetic simulated software (EMSS). The atomic probe measurement is in better agreement with the simulations than the metal probe. The deviation from the simulation of measurements taken with the atomic probe is smaller than the metal probe, improving by 1.6 dB. The symmetry of the amplitude distribution of the measured field is studied by comparing the measurements taken on either side of the field maxima.
We measure the near field distribution of a microwave horn with a resonant atomic probe. The microwave field emitted by a standard microwave horn is investigated utilizing Rydberg electromagnetically inducted transparency (EIT), an all-optical Rydberg detection, in a room temperature caesium vapor cell. The ground 6 S 1 / 2 , excited 6 P 3 / 2 , and Rydberg 56 D 5 / 2 states constitute a three-level system, used as an atomic probe to detect microwave electric fields by analyzing microwave dressed Autler–Townes (AT) splitting. We present a measurement of the electric field distribution of the microwave horn operating at 3.99 GHz in the near field, coupling the transition 56 D 5 / 2 → 57 P 3 / 2 . The microwave dressed AT spectrum reveals information on both the strength and polarization of the field emitted from the microwave horn simultaneously. The measurements are compared with field measurements obtained using a dipole metal probe, and with simulations of the electromagnetic simulated software (EMSS). The atomic probe measurement is in better agreement with the simulations than the metal probe. The deviation from the simulation of measurements taken with the atomic probe is smaller than the metal probe, improving by 1.6 dB. The symmetry of the amplitude distribution of the measured field is studied by comparing the measurements taken on either side of the field maxima.
We demonstrate the high-resolution spatial feature measurement of microwave electric field using an cesium atomic vapor cell based on the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) spectrum of133Cs Rydberg atom. The microwave electric field with the frequency of 6.95 GHz couples the transition of 47D5/2→48P3/2 Rydberg states. The EIT spectrum of a 6S1/2-6P3/2-47D5/2 ladder system will split by the Autler-Townes(AT) effect under the microwave electric field. The dependence of AT splitting separation on the microwave electric fields strength is observed. Moreover, we present the imaging of the spatial feature of microwave electric field in the atomic vapor cell. The theoretical maximum spatial resolution is about λMw/430.
An electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) of a cascade-three-level atom involving Rydberg level in a room-temperature cell, formed with a cesium 6S 1 / 2-6P 3 / 2-66 S 1 / 2 scheme, is employed to detect the Autler-Townes (AT) splitting resulted with a 15.21-GHz microwave field coupling the 66 S 1 / 2 → 65 P 1 / 2 transition. Microwave field induced AT splitting, f A T, is characterized by the distance of peak-to-peak of an EIT-AT spectrum. The f A T dependence on the microwave Rabi frequency, Ω M W , demonstrates two regions, the strong-coupling linear region, f A T ≈ Ω M W and the weak-coupling nonlinear region, f A T ≲ Ω M W. The f A T dependencies on the probe and coupling Rabi frequency are also investigated. Using small probe- and coupling-laser, the Rabi frequency is found to enlarge the linear regime and decrease the uncertainty of the microwave field measurements. The measurements agree with the calculations based on a four-level atomic model.
Significant progress has been made in atom-based measurements of length, time, gravity and electromagnetic fields in recently years. Rydberg atom-based microwave electric field measurement, using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in room temperature alkali-metal vapors, has been extensively investigated and aroused the broad interest. This approach may establish a new standard for the measurements of microwave (MW) and radio frequency (RF) electric fields.In this review, we describe the work on a new method of measuring electric fields based on quantum interference by using either cesium or rubidium atoms contained in a dielectric vapor cell. Rydberg atoms with principal quantum number n >>1 have large direct current (DC) polarizabilities and microwave transition dipole moments, thereby making them extremely sensitive to external electric fields. Using the Rydberg three-level EIT to detect the level splitting and shift that is induced by the external field, we can realize a rapid and robust self-calibration method of measuring the electric field in a frequency range from 0.01 GHz to 1000 GHz. For the MW electric field (frequency range > 1 GHz), the MW field causes the Rydberg states to split, known as an Autler-Townes splitting (A-T) effect when the applied microwave can resonate with adjacent Rydberg states. The MW coupled A-T splitting is proportional to the applied electric field strength, from which the field strength is measured. Using the EIT window, a high sensitivity of 3 μV·cm-1·Hz-1/2 and small electric field of 1 μV/cm are expected to be achieved with a modest setup, and the limitations of the sensitivity are also addressed in the review. For the RF field at frequency mj EIT lines, and avoided crossings formed with the fine-structure levels of equal mj and different J's, which is used to calibrate and measure the RF field amplitude. On the other hand, the dependence of the EIT-line strength on the RF field polarization provides a fast and robust polarization measurement of RF fields based on matching experimental data with a theoretical simulation. The measurements of minimum strengths and sensitivity of RF fields based on Rydberg atoms are one order magnitude below the values obtained by traditional antenna methods. The atom-based field measurement paves the way for determining fields through calibration-free, invariable atomic properties and miniaturization. We also propose its various potential applications in the future.
We present an electromagnetically induced transparency and Aulter-Townes (EIT-AT) spectrum of a Rydberg three-level atom that is dressed with a microwave field in a room-temperature cesium cell. The EIT is a quantum coherent effect produced by the interaction of atoms with electromagnetic waves, which leads to the decrease of the absorption for a weak resonant probe laser. AT splitting refers to the phenomenon, that the absorption line splits when an electromagnetic field that is in resonance or near resonance acts on the transition of atoms. Rydberg atoms are extremely sensitive to an external electric field due to their large polarizabilities and microwave transition dipole moments, which can be used to measure the external field. In this work, a Rydberg three-level EIT is used to detect Rydberg atom and AT splitting induced by the microwave field. Cesium levels 6S1/2, 6P3/2 and 50S1/2 constitute a Rydberg three-level system, in which a weak probe laser locking to the transition from 6S1/2 to 6P3/2 couples ground-state transition and the strong coupling laser resonates on the Rydberg transition from 6P2/3 to 50S1/2. The two Rydberg levels 50S1/2 and 50P1/2 are coupled with the microwave field at a frequency of 30.852 GHz, leading to the AT splitting of EIT line and forming an EIT-AT spectrum, which is used to measure the electric field amplitude of microwave. In order to further study the EIT-AT splitting characteristics of the Rydberg levels, we carry out a series of measurements by changing the microwave field. The experimental results show a broadened EIT-AT signal for the weak field range and the four-peak spectrum for the strong field, which is attributed to the inhomogeneity of the microwave field. The microwave in cesium cell, emitted by a function generator, shows inhomogeneous behavior such that the atoms interacting with the laser field experience the different fields, leading to the line broadened and multi-peak EIT-AT spectra. For the microwave transition of nS1/2-nP1/2 in this paper, a pair of EIT-AT lines should be obtained for an electric field value. The broadening of the EIT-AT spectrum and the multi-peak structure here are due to the inhomogeneity of the microwave field measurement. We propose a method to increase the spatial resolution by reducing the length of cesium cell. The result in this work provides a method of measuring the field amplitude and monitoring the distribution of microwave electric field, meanwhile the spatial resolution of the measurements can be improved by reducing the size of the cell.
Microwave electric fields are measured by using cold Rydberg atoms. We obtain spindle-shaped cold atomic clouds in a magneto-optical trap and then pump the cold atoms to quantum state 5S1/2, F = 2, mF = 2 by using an optical-pump laser. We obtain the Rydberg electromagnetic induction transparency (EIT) spectrum peak with narrow linewidth by the low temperature and small residual Doppler broadening. The results show that the typical EIT linewidth with 16 μK cold atoms is about 460 kHz which is 15 times narrower than that of 7 MHz obtained in the thermal vapor cell. The microwave electric field amplitude is measured by Autler-Townes splitting (EIT-AT splitting) in the cold atoms at frequencies of 9.2, 14.2 and 22.1 GHz, receptively. The results show that there is a good linear relationship between the EIT-AT splitting interval and the microwave electric field amplitude. The lower limit of the microwave electric field amplitude that can be measured in the linear region can reach as low as 222 μV/cm, which is about 22 times larger than the lower limit in the traditional thermal vapor cell about of 5 mV/cm. The improvement of the lower limit by EIT-AT splitting method is roughly proportional to the narrowing EIT line width by cold atom samples. This demonstrates that benefiting from the smaller residual Doppler effect and the narrower EIT linewidth in cold atoms, the cold atom system is more advantageous in the experimental measuring of the weak microwave electric field amplitude by using the EIT-AT splitting method. This is of great benefit to the absolute calibration of very weak microwave electric fields. Furthermore, the lower limit of the microwave electric field amplitude that can be measured is smaller than 1 μV/cm by using the change of transmittance of the prober laser at the EIT resonance, and the corresponding sensitivity can reach 1 μV·cm–1·Hz–1/2. These results demonstrate the advantages of cold atomic sample in microwave electric field measurement and its absolute calibration.
Abstract We theoretically and experimentally studied quantum microwave electrometry in a cold atomic system using Rydberg electromagnetic induction transparency (EIT) and Autler–Townes splitting (EIT-AT splitting). In cold atoms, a spectral linewidth of ∼500 kHz for EIT was achieved owing to a significant reduction in residual Doppler width, i.e. by at least an order of magnitude, compared to that in vapor cells at room temperature. Therefore, the minimum microwave electric field intensity (E MW) that can be measured is 430 µV cm−1, which is one order higher sensitivity in the EIT-AT regime than that in vapor cells at room temperature. Unlike microwave electrometry in atomic vapor cells, EIT-AT splitting cannot be observed if E MW is so large that the EIT-AT splitting interval Δ f m exceeds the absorption peak width of the cold atom while scanning the frequency of the probe laser (ω p ). Moreover, EIT-AT splitting can be observed if Δ f m exceeds the natural linewidth Γ eg of the intermediate states while scanning the coupling laser (ω c ) and maintains a high spectral resolution with a high signal-to-noise ratio. While scanning ω c , the upper microwave electric field intensity is limited by the scanning range of our setup. Using our system, we measure the maximum field to be 21.6 mV cm−1, nearly three times higher than that of 6.8 mV cm−1 while scanning ω p . The results indicate that the linear range of E MW measured using EIT-AT splitting considerably improves in cold Rydberg atoms.