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Quantum 2.0 Conference and Exhibition

Continuous microwave to optical conversion and detection based on warm Rydberg atoms

Mateusz Mazelanik, Sebastian Borówka, Wojciech Wasilewski, Michal P. Parniak

Published Jan 1, 2024• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate a wideband continuous microwave-to-optical conversion scheme based on a warm atomic system. The scheme enables counting microwave pho-tons with 57dB dynamic range, reaching 4K thermal radiation limit, and allows all-optical phase-sensitive detection of weak microwave fields.
DOI
10.1364/quantum.2024.qm2c.2

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Atomic heterodyne dressed by a local oscillator resonant with Rydberg transitions allows high sensitivity and robust phase measurement of a microwave electric field, but it is typically limited to detection of discrete frequencies within the narrow bandwidth of Rydberg transitions. Here we demonstrate an atomic heterodyne scheme for continuous-frequency electric field measurement based on multilevel Rydberg atoms in a room-temperature vapor cell. Driven by two off-resonant microwaves acting as a tunable local oscillator field, the heterodyne receiver can retrieve the amplitude, phase, and frequency information of signal microwave in a continuous frequency band. In our experiment, the receiver achieves an electric field sensitivity of up to $1.5\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{V}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{Hz}}^{\ensuremath{-}1/2}$, 80-dB linear dynamic range, and over 1 GHz of continuous frequency range. We also demonstrate the reliable reception of continuously tunable phase-modulated carriers in the digital communication. This work will facilitate the application of atomic heterodyne in the areas such as radar technique, radio monitoring, and radio astronomy.