Detecting microwave signals over a wide frequency range has numerous advantages as it enables simultaneous transmission of a large amount of information, and access to more spectrum resources. This capability is crucial for applications such as microwave communication, remote sensing, and radar. However, conventional microwave receiving systems are limited by amplifiers and band-pass filters that can only operate efficiently in a specific frequency range. Typically, these systems can only process signals within a three-fold frequency range, which limits the data transfer bandwidth of the microwave communication systems. Developing novel atom-integrated microwave sensors, for example, radio frequency (RF)-chip coupled Rydberg atomic receiver, provides opportunities for a large working bandwidth of microwave sensing at the atomic level. Here, an ultra-wide dual-band RF sensing scheme is demonstrated by space-division multiplexing two RF-chip-integrated atomic receiver modules. The system can simultaneously receive dual-band microwave signals that span a frequency range exceeding 6 octaves (300 MHz and 24 GHz). This work paves the way for multi-band microwave reception applications within an ultra-wide range by RF-chip-integrated Rydberg atomic sensor.
Detecting microwave signals over a wide frequency range has numerous advantages as it enables simultaneous transmission of a large amount of information, and access to more spectrum resources. This capability is crucial for applications such as microwave communication, remote sensing, and radar. However, conventional microwave receiving systems are limited by amplifiers and band-pass filters that can only operate efficiently in a specific frequency range. Typically, these systems can only process signals within a three-fold frequency range, which limits the data transfer bandwidth of the microwave communication systems. Developing novel atom-integrated microwave sensors, for example, radio frequency (RF)-chip coupled Rydberg atomic receiver, provides opportunities for a large working bandwidth of microwave sensing at the atomic level. Here, an ultra-wide dual-band RF sensing scheme is demonstrated by space-division multiplexing two RF-chip-integrated atomic receiver modules. The system can simultaneously receive dual-band microwave signals that span a frequency range exceeding 6 octaves (300 MHz and 24 GHz). This work paves the way for multi-band microwave reception applications within an ultra-wide range by RF-chip-integrated Rydberg atomic sensor.
Detecting microwave signals over a wide frequency range has numerous advantages as it enables simultaneous transmission of a large amount of information and access to more spectrum resources. This capability is crucial for applications such as microwave communication, remote sensing, and radar. However, conventional microwave receiving systems are limited by amplifiers and band-pass filters that can only operate efficiently in a specific frequency range. Typically, these systems can only process signals within a three-fold frequency range, which limits the data transfer bandwidth of the microwave communication systems. Developing novel atom-integrated microwave sensors, for example, radio frequency (RF)-chip coupled Rydberg atomic receiver, provides opportunities for a large working bandwidth of microwave sensing at the atomic level. Here, an ultra-wide dual-band RF sensing scheme is demonstrated by space-division multiplexing two RF-chip-integrated atomic receiver modules. The system can simultaneously receive dual-band microwave signals that span a frequency range exceeding 6 octaves (300 MHz and 24 GHz). This work paves the way for multi-band microwave reception applications within an ultra-wide range by RF-chip-integrated Rydberg atomic sensor.
Rydberg electric field sensors exploit the large number of Rydberg resonances to provide sensitivity over a broad range of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, due to the difficulty of accessing resonant Rydberg states at ultra-high frequency (UHF) and below, ubiquitous bands in the world's current wireless communications infrastructure, they currently fall, short in sensitivity in this range. We present a resonant Rydberg electric field sensor operating in the UHF band using a dual-optical dual-microwave spectroscopy scheme. Adding an additional microwave photon allows us to access transitions between Rydberg states with higher angular momentum (L=3→4), which have lower resonant frequencies than transitions typically used in Rydberg sensors. We discuss the applicability of this type of sensor across the UHF band and below and measure the resonant sensitivity of our system at 2.3 GHz to be 70(5) μV m−1 Hz−1∕2, 57 times better than the measured sensitivity with a far off-resonant probing scheme at this frequency. We also show the effectiveness of this sensing scheme by measuring Sirius XM satellite radio (2.320–2.345 GHz) received outside the laboratory and rebroadcast onto the atoms.
Rydberg electric field sensors exploit the structured multitude of electronic transitions between Rydberg atomic states. In this way, they can detect electric fields with frequencies spanning DC to THz. However, difficulty accessing resonant transitions at ultra-high frequencies (UHF, 0.3-30 GHz) and below hinders their applicability within this ubiquitous band of the world’s wireless communications infrastructure. We present a Rydberg electric field sensor operating in the UHF band using a resonant dual-optical dual-microwave spectroscopy scheme. This enables access to transitions with lower resonant frequencies, and higher angular momentum (L = 3→4), than those typically used in Rydberg sensors. We measure the resonant sensitivity of our system at 2.3 GHz to be 70(5) µVm−1Hz−1/2, 50 times better than the measured sensitivity with a far off-resonant probing scheme at this frequency. Moreover, we demonstrate the effectiveness of this scheme by measuring Sirius XM satellite radio (2.320 - 2.345 GHz) received outside the laboratory and rebroadcast onto the atoms.
Rydberg atoms have been extensively utilized in microwave measurement with high sensitivity, which has great potential in the field of communication. In this study, we discuss the digital communication based on a Rydberg atomic receiver under simultaneously coupling by resonant and near detuning microwaves. In addition, we verify the feasibility of the Rydberg atom-based frequency division multiplexing (FDM) in microwave communication. We demonstrate the principle and performance of the atom-based FDM receiver by applying amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM), respectively. To demonstrate the actual communication performance at different data transfer rates, we consider monochromatic images as an example. The experimental results show that the maximum acceptable data transfer rate of both AM and FM is about 200 kbps, whereas their maximum bit error rates (BER) is less than 5%. When compared with the traditional electronic receiver, this atomic receiver, which is compatible with FDM, has numerous advantages, such as small size, low power consumption, and high sensitivity. Furthermore, this receiver has a strong ability of anti-electromagnetic interference, and the signals transmitted do not interfere with each other in different channels.
Due to the exaggerated properties of highly excited atomic states, a Rydberg-atom-based microwave receiver holds the promise to achieve superior performances in microwave metrology and communication when compared to conventional antennas. However, developing long-distance communication applications based on Rydberg atomic receiver remains challenging, because it requires the simultaneous achievement of low bit error rate (BER), high symbol rate, and weak carrier amplitude. The key to tackle this problem is to encode the information with a proper scheme that maintains high sensitivity and robustness of the Rydberg atomic receiver. Here, we use Rydberg atom-based heterodyne detection for the reception of phase-modulated microwave field, and demonstrate more than one order of magnitude improvement in reception sensitivity compared to the previously investigated amplitude-modulation scheme. Therefore, we achieve low BER communication with high symbol rate of 12 k bit/s and weak carrier amplitude of $13\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{\ensuremath{\mu}}\mathrm{V}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ simultaneously. Furthermore, we also demonstrate that our scheme is compatible with frequency-division-multiplexing communication.
The highly-excited Rydberg states are with a unique property of radio-frequency (RF) resonance, and Rydberg atoms at room temperature are promising for developing a broadband RF electric field sensor and relevant metrology standards. In this paper, the working mechanism of an atomic amplitude-modulation(AM) radio receiver is investigated in detail, and various factors affecting the communication quality are discussed. The modulation RF signal can be directly retrieved by measuring the transmission of a probe laser at resonance of rubidium D2 transition using a fast photo-diode detector, without any conventional demodulation process. Various communication experiments are tested at a 10.22 GHz carrier, and a modulation bandwidth of 1 MHz and an acceptable data transfer rate of about 1 Mbps have been achieved using current detection techniques. Owing to a potential high sensitivity and ultra-broadband capability of free-space RF field sensing, the quantum receiver has great significance compared with conventional electronics-based receivers, including but not limited to a weak signal, long-distance, and broadband communication in free space or via a fiber link.