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IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing Workshops (ICASSPW)

Synthetic Aperture RF Reception Using Rydberg Atoms

Nikunjkumar Prajapti, Alexandra B. Artusio‐Glimpse, Matthew T. Simons, Samuel Berweger, Andrew P. Rotunno, Maitreyi Jayaseelan, Kaleb Campbell, Christopher L. Holloway

Published Jun 4, 2023• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1109/icasspw59220.2023.10193367

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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 present on the recent development of an atomic antenna probe and front-end based on Rydberg atoms for applications in radio-frequency (RF) imaging and synthetic apertures. Fundamental atom-RF responses and RF amplitude and phase determination methods for Rydberg atom probes are described. We demonstrate electric field imaging in the near-field of a 2.5 GHz Yagi-Uda antenna device under test (DUT) using a portable Rydberg atom probe and integrated front-end, the Rydberg Field Probe (RFP). A wide-area RF electric field map is generated by positioning of the RFP at discrete spatial measurement locations in the near field of the DUT, from which a composite image of the two-dimensional antenna pattern is realized at a spatial resolution of λ/2\lambda /2λ/2 and field uncertainties within 5.5%. Finally, we demonstrate RF phase imaging of a 100 GHz field using a Rydberg EIT optical fluorescence imager and RF self-homodyning, towards RF phase-sensing and imaging at millimeter-wave frequencies.
Measurements of radio-frequency (RF) electric fields using atomic sensors based on quantum-optical spectroscopy of Rydberg states in vapors has garnered significant interest in recent years for the establishment of atomic standards for RF electric fields and towards the development of novel RF sensing instrumentation. Here we describe recent work employing atomic sensors for sub-wavelength near-field imaging of a Ku- band horn antenna. We demonstrate near-field imaging capability at a spatial resolution of λ/10 and measurements over a 72 to 240 V/m field range using off-resonance AC-Stark shifts of a Rydberg-atom resonance. A fiber-coupled atomic-sensor probe is also employed in far-field measurements of a WR-90 standard gain horn.
The high polarizability of Rydberg atoms enables the multi-parameters measurement of electromagnetic fields. In this paper, we report on an atomic antenna based on Rydberg atoms in a room temperature vapor cell. The EIT is a destructive interference spectroscopy with a narrow linewidth and can be used to detect small electric fields through Autler-Townes splitting or Stark shifts. In our experiments, we employ cascade-type two-photon excitation electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) spectroscopy to measure the shift of the Rydberg energy level. We introduce a low-frequency electric field (~kHz frequency) using a built-in electrode technique in the cesium cell. The interaction between the Rydberg atom and electric field induces the Stark shifts, where the amplitude of the electric field is converted into corresponding two-photon detuning by the EIT effect. Furthermore, the amplitude of the low-frequency electric field is converted into an intensity signal of EIT probe beam. Under weak field conditions, it is an approximate linear relationship between EIT transmission signal and input electric field amplitude, enabling measurement of waveform, amplitude, and frequency. We have demonstrated optical measurements of low-frequency electric field using Rydberg atoms. By increasing the power of probe beam and coupling beam, the EIT can increase the response bandwidth from ~MHz to hundreds of MHz. This provides a scalable approach for measuring high-frequency electric fields.
We present a significantly new approach for an electric (E) field probe design. The probe is based on the interaction of RF-fields with Rydberg atoms, where alkali atoms are excited optically to Rydberg states and the applied RF-field alters the resonant state of the atoms. For this probe, the Rydberg atoms are excited in a glass vapor cell. The Rydberg atoms act like an RF-to-optical transducer, converting an RF E-field to an optical-frequency response. The probe utilizes the concept of Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT). The RF transition in the four-level atomic system causes a split of the EIT transmission spectrum for the probe laser. This splitting is easily measured and is directly proportional to the applied RF field amplitude. Therefore, by measuring this splitting we get a direct measurement of the RF E-field strength. The significant dipole response of Rydberg atoms over the GHz regime enables this technique to make traceable measurements over a large frequency band including 1-500 GHz. We will show that, with one probe, measurements can be made over a very large frequency range. This is a truly broadband probe/sensor. In this paper, we report on our results in the development of this probe.
Atomic sensing and electric field measurements based on the use of the all-optical electromagnetic induction transparency (EIT) spectrum of Rydberg atoms have attracted great interest due to the advantages of self-calibration, Le Système International d'unités traceability, and a broadband spectrum. At the same time, this methodology also promotes the development of atomic sensor technology. We present a novel high-efficiency Rydberg-atom radio-frequency (RF) electric (E) field integrated probe (Rydberg Field Probe or RFP). The high-efficiency RFP consists of a 10 mm cubic 133Cs vapor cell, a dichroic mirror, three collimating lenses, and three fibers. This system can be used to independently control two counterpropagating lasers passing through a vapor cell, easing the design effort. In addition, the overall system efficiency can reach a value of 40.4%, reducing the EIT power broadening doe conventional RFPs. Based on the designed high-efficiency RFP, near-field electric field measurement and imaging of a C-band horn antenna at 4.48 GHz are performed by using the resonant RF field of the 133Cs atomic Rydberg state at room temperature with a spatial resolution of λ/6. These results promote the development of atomic sensing technology and show great application potential for the measurement of measuring high-resolution radio frequency electric fields and arrays of RFPs.