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Scientific Reports

Dual-frequency modulation in microwave-optical double resonance for manipulation of atomic populations

Mahnaz Asadolah Salmanpour, Mohammad Mosleh, Seyedeh Mehri Hamidi

Published Jul 1, 2025• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This study presents a dual-frequency modulation scheme in which both optical and microwave fields are simultaneously modulated in a microwave-optical double resonance system within a hot rubidium vapor cell. The combined modulation produces harmonic spectral features at the sum and difference of the individual modulation frequencies, indicating nonlinear coupling between the fields. Experimental results reveal that this approach enables modulation of atomic population dynamics and facilitates efficient population transfer between hyperfine levels. The observed frequency mixing highlights the system's sensitivity to dual modulation and suggests its potential for enhancing the spectral control of atomic transitions. These findings may support future developments in atomic clocks, high-precision magnetometers, and quantum information processing systems.

DOI
10.1038/s41598-025-06303-3

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This study presents a dual-frequency modulation scheme in which both optical and microwave fields are simultaneously modulated in a microwave-optical double resonance system within a hot rubidium vapor cell. The combined modulation produces harmonic spectral features at the sum and difference of the individual modulation frequencies, indicating nonlinear coupling between the fields. Experimental results reveal that this approach enables modulation of atomic population dynamics and facilitates efficient population transfer between hyperfine levels. The observed frequency mixing highlights the system's sensitivity to dual modulation and suggests its potential for enhancing the spectral control of atomic transitions. These findings may support future developments in atomic clocks, high-precision magnetometers, and quantum information processing systems.
Information transfer between a microwave field and light, also known as microwave-to optical transduction, is a key area of research in quantum communication technology aimed at developing an interface between the superconducting processing devices operating at microwave frequencies and optical photons used for transferring quantum information over distance. Atomic vapors offer a good platform for such interfaces since they naturally support transitions at microwave and optical frequencies. In this work, we explored microwave-to-optical transduction in rubidium ensembles. We proposed a transduction method based on microwave-optical double resonance, where we can control the ensemble optical properties via non-linear interactions with a microwave magnetic field. With this method, we demonstrate the transduction of an audio signal from frequency-modulated and amplitude-modulated microwave fields to optical intensity modulation. We also present a protocol for engineering atomic spin polarization with microwave-assisted optical pumping and consider its applications for polarization-selective frequency conversion and microwave-controlled optical rotation.
We demonstrate a dual wavelength optical frequency standard based on the dual optical transition modulation transfer spectroscopy (DOTMTS) between different quantum transitions of the rubidium D1 (795 nm) and D2 (780 nm) lines. In a single rubidium atomic ensemble, modulation frequency sidebands from the 780 nm pump beam are simultaneously transferred to both the 780 nm and 795 nm probe lasers. The DOTMTS enables the simultaneous stabilization of 780 nm and 795 nm lasers on a single vapor cell. Both lasers exhibit a frequency instability in the low 10 ^(-14) range at 1 s of averaging, as estimated from the residual error signal. A theoretical model is developed based on the V type atomic level structure to illustrate the dual-wavelength spectroscopy. This approach can be extended to develop a multiwavelength optical frequency standard within a single atomic ensemble, broadening its applicability in fields such as precision metrology, wavelength standards, optical networks, and beyond.
We demonstrate a dual-wavelength optical frequency standard based on the dual-optical-transition modulation transfer spectroscopy (DOT-MTS) between different quantum transitions of the rubidium D1 (795 nm) and D2 (780 nm) lines. In a single rubidium atomic ensemble, modulation frequency sidebands from the 780 nm pump beam are simultaneously transferred to both the 780 and 795 nm probe lasers. The DOT-MTS enables the simultaneous stabilization of 780 and 795 nm lasers on a single vapor cell. Both lasers exhibit a frequency instability in the low 10 −14 range at 1 s of averaging, as estimated from the residual error signal. A theoretical model is developed based on the V-type atomic level structure to illustrate the dual-wavelength spectroscopy. This approach can be extended to develop a multi-wavelength optical frequency standard within a single atomic ensemble, broadening its applicability in fields such as precision metrology, Rydberg atoms, wavelength standards, optical networks, and beyond.
Novel spectral line shapes of optical-microwave double resonance with an extremely narrow line width were observed in a rubidium atomic clock pumped by a semiconductor laser. It was confirmed that these novel spectral line shapes of double resonance were due to the modulation-transfer effect. These spectral line shapes were calculated by solving the equation of motion of the density matrix that describes the modulation-transfer process. The calculated results agree with the experimental results. By using the calculated results of the influence of the optical Stark effect on these spectral line shapes, characteristics of the inhomogeneous light shift were evaluated quantitatively for the frequency-modulated microwave. Furthermore, optimum values of modulation parameters were found by computer simulation in order to obtain the highest microwave frequency stability of the atomic clocks. An experiment was carried out employing these optimum parameters, and a short-term frequency stability as high as σy(τ) = 7.9 × 10−13τ−1/2 was obtained, where τ is an integration time of measurement.
We report a laser frequency offset locking scheme for coherent population trapping (CPT) atomic clock. Based on a usual half-wave modulation in CPT atomic clocks, we add a radio frequency signal to the laser driving current to form dual-modulation to compensate the frequency shift of optical transition due to buffer gas in the clock cell. The Doppler-free absorption enhanced spectrum produced by dual-modulation is observed and successfully applied to the laser frequency offset locking. In our scheme, a frequency shift device is no longer necessary, thus the clock's size, weight, power, complexity, environmental sensitivity, and cost are reduced, this is suitable for implementing compact and high-performance CPT and POP atomic clocks.
Atomic vapors offer many opportunities for manipulating electromagnetic signals across a broad range of electromagnetic spectra. Here, a microwave signal with an audio frequency modulation encodes information in an optical signal by exploiting an atomic microwave-to-optical double resonance and magnetic-field coupling that is amplified by a resonant high-Q microwave cavity. Using this approach, audio signals are encoded as amplitude or frequency modulations in a GHz carrier, transmitted through a cable or over free space, demodulated through cavity-enhanced atom-microwave interactions, and, finally, optically detected to extract the original information. This atom-cavity signal transduction technique provides a powerful means by which to transfer information between microwave and optical fields, all using a relatively simple experimental setup without active electronics.