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Optics Express

Microwave-field sensing via electromagnetically induced absorption of Rb irradiated by three-color infrared lasers

Shuhang You, M. H. Cai, S. S. Zhang, Z. S. Xu, Hongping Liu

Published Apr 12, 2022• 29 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A microwave electric field sensing has been set up based on a three-color electromagnetically induced absorption in rubidium vapor cell via cascading transitions. All transitions are irradiated by infrared lasers: a 780 nm laser servers as probe to monitor the optical transmittancy via transition 5S1/2→P3/2;, a 776 nm laser and a 1260 nm laser are used to couple the states 5P3/2 and 5D5/2 and states 5D5/2 and 44F7/2, respectively. We find that a frequency detuning ∼2π × ( − 40) MHz of the 776 nm dressing beam prefers to a better signal-to-noise ratio for the probe beam. The off-resonance greatly depresses the double resonance pumping effect. A demonstration measurement for the electric field of microwave 1.18988 GHz, corresponding to the coupling resonance between two adjacent Rydberg states 44F7/2 and 44F9/2, gives a sensitivity of 55.79 ( 23 ) nVcm − 1 / Hz and a smallest discernible electric field of 78.9(33) nVcm−1 in time scale of 500 ms.

DOI
10.1364/oe.454433

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A microwave electric field sensing has been set up based on a three-color electromagnetically induced absorption in rubidium vapor cell via cascading transitions. All transitions are irradiated by infrared lasers: a 780 nm laser servers as probe to monitor the optical transmittancy via transition 5S1/2→P3/2;, a 776 nm laser and a 1260 nm laser are used to couple the states 5P3/2 and 5D5/2 and states 5D5/2 and 44F7/2, respectively. We find that a frequency detuning ∼2π × ( − 40) MHz of the 776 nm dressing beam prefers to a better signal-to-noise ratio for the probe beam. The off-resonance greatly depresses the double resonance pumping effect. A demonstration measurement for the electric field of microwave 1.18988 GHz, corresponding to the coupling resonance between two adjacent Rydberg states 44F7/2 and 44F9/2, gives a sensitivity of 55.79 ( 23 ) nVcm − 1 / Hz and a smallest discernible electric field of 78.9(33) nVcm−1 in time scale of 500 ms.
A comprehensive study of three-photon electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and absorption (EIA) on the rubidium cascade $5{S}_{1/2}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}5{P}_{3/2}$ (laser wavelength 780 nm), $5{P}_{3/2}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}5{D}_{5/2}$ (776 nm), and $5{D}_{5/2}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}28{F}_{7/2}$ (1260 nm) is performed. The 780-nm probe and 776-nm dressing beams are counteraligned through a Rb room-temperature vapor cell, and the 1260-nm coupler beam is co- or counteraligned with the probe beam. Several cases of EIT and EIA, measured over a range of detunings of the 776-nm beam, are studied. The observed phenomena are modeled by numerically solving the Lindblad equation, and the results are interpreted in terms of the probe-beam absorption behavior of velocity- and detuning-dependent dressed states. Interaction-time effects are discussed. To explore the utility of three-photon Rydberg EIA and EIT for microwave electric-field diagnostics, a sub-THz field generated by a signal source and a frequency quadrupler is applied to the Rb cell. The 100.633-GHz field resonantly drives the $28{F}_{7/2}\ensuremath{\leftrightarrow}29{D}_{5/2}$ transition and causes Autler-Townes splittings in the Rydberg EIA and EIT spectra, which are measured and employed to characterize the performance of the microwave quadrupler.
We present an atom-based approach for determining microwave electric and magnetic fields by using a single rubidium vapor cell in a microwave waveguide. For a 87Rb cascade three-level system employed in our experiment, a weak probe laser driving the lower transition, 5S1/2→5P3/2, is first used to measure the microwave magnetic field based on the atomic Rabi resonance. When a counter-propagating strong coupling laser is subsequently turned on to drive the Rydberg transition, 5P3/2→67D5/2, the same probe laser is then used as a Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) probe to measure the microwave electric field by investigating the resonant microwave dressed Autler-Townes splitting (ATS). By tuning the hyperfine transition frequency of the ground state using an experimentally feasible static magnetic field, we first achieved a measurement of the microwave electric and magnetic field strength at the same microwave frequency of 6.916 GHz. Based on the ideal relationship between the electric and magnetic field components, we obtained the equivalent microwave magnetic fields by fitting the inversion to the measured microwave electric fields, which demonstrated that the results were in agreement with the experimental measurement of the microwave magnetic fields in the same microwave power range. This study provides new experimental evidence for quantum-based microwave measurements of electric and magnetic fields by a single sensor in the same system.
We have demonstrated a Rydberg atom-based two-band communication with the optically excited Rydberg state coupled to another pair of Rydberg states by two microwave fields, respectively. The initial Rydberg state is excited by a three-color electromagnetically-induced absorption in rubidium vapor cell via cascading transitions, with all of them located in infrared bands: a 780 nm laser servers as a probe to monitor the optical transmittancy via transition 5S1/2→5P3/2, 776 nm and 1260 nm lasers are used to couple the states 5P3/2 and 5D5/2 and states 5D5/2 and 44F7/2. Experimentally, we show that two channel communications carried on the two microwave transitions influence each other irreconcilably, so that they cannot work at their most sensitive microwave-optical conversion points simultaneously. For a remarkable communication quality for both channels, the two microwave fields both have to make concessions to reach a common microwave-optical gain. The optimized balance for the two microwave intensities locates at EMW1=6.5 mV/cm and EMW2=5.5 mV/cm in our case. This mutual exclusive influence is theoretically well-explained by an optical Bloch equation considering all optical and microwave field interactions with atoms.
Atoms form the basis of precise measurement for many quantities (time, acceleration, rotation, magnetic field, etc.). Measurements of microwave frequency electric fields by traditional methods (i.e. engineered antennas) have limited sensitivity and can be difficult to calibrate properly. Highly-excited (Rydberg) neutral atoms have very large electric-dipole moments and many dipole allowed transitions in the range of 1 - 500 GHz. It is possible to sensitively probe the electric field in this range using the combination of two quantum interference phenomena: electromagnetically induced transparency and the Autler-Townes effect. This technique allows for very sensitive field amplitude, polarization, and sub-wavelength imaging measurements. These quantities can be extracted by measuring properties of a probe laser beam as it passes through a warm rubidium vapor cell. Thus far, Rydberg microwave electrometry has relied upon the absorption of the probe laser. We report on our use of polarization rotation, which corresponds to the real part of the susceptibility, for measuring the properties of microwave frequency electric fields. Our simulations show that when a magnetic field is present and directed along the optical propagation direction a polarization rotation signal exists and can be used for microwave electrometry. One central advantage in using the polarization rotation signal rather than the absorption signal is that common mode laser noise is naturally eliminated leading to a potentially dramatic increase in signal-to-noise ratio.
A highly excited Rydberg atom via electromagnetically induced transparency with two color cascading lasers has extreme sensitivity to electric fields of microwave ranging from 100 MHz to over 1 THz. It can be used as susceptible atom-based microwave communication antennas where the carrier wave usually works exactly resonant to the transition between a pair of adjacent Rydberg states with large electric dipole moment. A technique of superheterodyne with a strong on-resonant local microwave oscillator is employed to induce considerable Autler-Townes splitting where the antennas has a highest dynamic response to another weak target signal microwave carrier. To further improve the sensitivity of atomic antenna in communication, we detune the carrier microwave frequency off resonance forming an asymmetrically optical splitting and fix the coupling laser frequency at the shoulder of the stronger one, and optimize the local field strength simultaneously. It gives a sensitivity of 12.50(04) nVcm−1⋅Hz−1/2\rm{nVcm^{-1}\cdot Hz^{-1/2}}nVcm−1⋅Hz−1/2. Its enhancement mechanism of sensitivity is also proved by a theoretical simulation.
We present a precise measurement of a weak radio frequency electric field with a frequency of ≲ 3 GHz employing a resonant atomic probe that is constituted with a Rydberg cascade three-level atom, including a cesium ground state |6S1/2⟩, an excited state |6P3/2⟩, and Rydberg state |nD5/2⟩. Two radio frequency (RF) electric fields, noted as local and signal fields, couple the nearby Rydberg transition. The two-photon resonant Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency (Rydberg-EIT) is employed to directly read out the weak signal field having hundreds of kHz difference between the local and signal fields that is encoded in the resonant microwave-dressed Rydberg atoms. The minimum detectable signal fields of E Smin = 1.36 ± 0.04 mV/m for 2.18 GHz coupling |68D5/2⟩ → |69P3/2⟩ transition and 1.33 ± 0.02 mV/m for 1.32 GHz coupling |80D5/2⟩ → |81P3/2⟩ transition are obtained, respectively. The bandwidth dependence is also investigated by varying the signal field frequency and corresponding −3 dB bandwidth of 3 MHz is attained. This method can be employed to perform a rapid and precise measurement of the weak electric field, which is important for the atom-based microwave metrology.