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Chinese Physics Letters

Sagnac-Enhanced Rydberg Superheterodyne Receiver with Dual-Beam Interference

Hongmei 红梅 Yan 闫, Taisen 泰森 Gao 高, Mingyong Jing, Wenguang Yang, Hao Zhang, Zong-Kai Liu, Junyao 君尧 Xie 谢, Liantuan Xiao, Suotang Jia, Linjie Zhang

Published Oct 10, 2025• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Increasing the number of atoms that interact with microwave fields represents a promising strategy for enhancing the sensitivity of Rydberg atom-based superheterodyne receivers. Nevertheless, the practical implementation of this approach is impeded by adverse effects such as excitation saturation of Rydberg atoms and power broadening. Here, we demonstrate enhanced microwave field measurements based on two specific velocity groups of atoms, simultaneously addressed by dual-channel probe beams in a Sagnac loop interferometer. The application of resonance detuning in two-photon excitation enables selective addressing of atoms moving along the beam direction, thereby significantly mitigating atomic transit noise. At 7.97 GHz, our method yields a 3 dB improvement in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), achieving a sensitivity of 10.7 nV⋅cm −1 ⋅Hz −1/2 . This approach offers a viable pathway to further improve the sensitivity of Rydberg atom-based microwave electrometers.

DOI
10.1088/0256-307x/42/12/120601

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Abstract Increasing the number of atoms that interact with microwave fields represents a promising strategy for enhancing the sensitivity of Rydberg atom-based superheterodyne receivers. Nevertheless, the practical implementation of this approach is impeded by adverse effects such as excitation saturation of Rydberg atoms and power broadening. Here, we demonstrate enhanced microwave field measurements based on two specific velocity groups of atoms, simultaneously addressed by dual-channel probe beams in a Sagnac loop interferometer. The application of resonance detuning in two-photon excitation enables selective addressing of atoms moving along the beam direction, thereby significantly mitigating atomic transit noise. At 7.97 GHz, our method yields a 3 dB improvement in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), achieving a sensitivity of 10.7 nV⋅cm −1 ⋅Hz −1/2 . This approach offers a viable pathway to further improve the sensitivity of Rydberg atom-based microwave electrometers.
Measurement sensitivity is crucial for the practical application of Rydberg atomic microwave superheterodyne receiver systems in communication, radar, and navigation. Based on laser-atom-microwave interaction mechanisms, the influence of laser powers and local-oscillator (LO) microwave field intensity on measurement sensitivity is systematically studied in this paper. Measurement sensitivity is analyzed through electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) spectral characteristics, specifically EIT amplitude and full-width-half-maximum (FWHM),larger amplitudes and narrower FWHM indicate improved signal-to-noise ratios. For a 60D-state Rydberg atomic system with fixed probe and coupling laser beam waists (800 µm and 875 µm), optimal parameters are determined: probe laser power of 60 µW(Rabi frequency: 2π×7.02 MHz), coupling laser power of 40 mW (Rabi frequency: 2π×0.66 MHz), and LO microwave Rabi frequency of 2π×8.34 MHz. Experimental results demonstrate a 4.6 dB sensitivity enhancement, advancing from −137.5dBm/Hz to −142.1 dBm/Hz at 3.21 GHz microwave field. This improvement is attributed to precise alignment of laser-atom and microwave-atom interactions, bridging the gap toward quantum sensitivity limits.
High-sensitivity measurements of the microwave electric field are important in applications of communication and metrology. The sensitivity of traditional Rydberg superheterodyne receivers in free space is effectively determined by the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which is often considered equivalent to sensitivity in practical sensing applications. In this work, we demonstrate a cavity-enhanced receiver, where an optical cavity significantly amplifies the interaction between the probe light and cesium atoms, which substantially improves the signal-to-noise ratio via enhancing the expansion coefficient κ . Here, κ is the edge slope of the single peak obtained by fitting the double-peak EIT-AT spectrum, characterizing the response of the probe light to the frequency detuning of the coupling laser. The sensitivity is thus boosted by a factor of approximately 19 dB. This study highlights the pivotal role of optical cavities in advancing Rydberg-based detection systems, offering a promising approach for high-sensitivity microwave electric field measurements.
Rydberg atom,which exhibits a strong response to weak electric(E) fields,is regarded as a promising atomic receiver to surpass sensitivity of conventional receivers. However, its sensitivity is strongly limited by the noise coming from both classical and quantum levels and how to enhance it significantly remains challenging. Here we experimentally prove that the sensitivity of Rydberg atomic receiver can be increased to 23 nV/cm/Hz1/2 by combining laser arrays. Theoretically, we demonstrate that multiple beams illuminating on a PD perform better than multiple PDs for laser arrays.In our experiment,10 dB SNR enhancement is achieved by utilizing 2 * 2 probe beam arrays, compared to the performance of a laser beam,and it can be enhanced further just by adding a resonator. The results could offer an avenue for the design and optimization of ultrahigh-sensitivity Rydberg atomic receivers and promote applications in cosmology, meteorology, communication, and microwave quantum technology.
Rydberg atom-based microwave electric field sensing has attracted growing interest owing to its inherent advantages, such as absolute calibration, wideband operability, and compatibility with room-temperature devices. A critical bottleneck that limits sensitivity is the inefficient coupling between the Rydberg atoms and the incident microwave field, particularly when detecting weak signals propagating in free space. Here we propose and experimentally validate a scheme that integrates a horn antenna with a resonant microwave cavity to significantly improve this coupling for free-space signal reception in the S-band. Using a two-photon excitation scheme in a cesium vapor cell, we systematically characterize the sensing performance under three configurations: a bare cell, direct cavity injection, and a cavity coupled to a horn antenna that captures free-space microwave signals over a 1 m distance. In the antenna-coupled cavity configuration, we achieve an optimal sensitivity of 2.33 nV/cm/Hz\sqrt{\text{Hz}}Hz​ at the receiving antenna, which corresponds to an enhancement of approximately 17.9 dB compared to the optimized bare vapor cell configuration. Our findings offer a practical and effective route to boost the sensitivity of Rydberg atomic sensors, facilitating their adoption in real-world microwave metrology and wireless communication applications where weak free-space electric fields must be reliably measured.
Cross-spectral analysis is widely used for weak-signal extraction due to its ability to suppress uncorrelated noise. The common frequency-correlated noise of the probe laser in different detection channels restricts the cross-spectral noise suppression and degrades sensitivity. We propose and experimentally demonstrate a dual-channel Rydberg heterodyne scheme based on asymmetric optical detuning. This method with cross-spectral density (CSD) processing reduces the interchannel probe-frequency noise correlation while preserving the common microwave-induced atomic response essential for signal coherence. Experimental results confirm that asymmetric detuning selectively suppresses laser-noise-induced coherence without degrading signal correlation and thus improves the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Compared with single-channel power spectral density (PSD) analysis, this method reduces the noise floor and improves the SNR by 12 dB for the resonant case and by 3.7 dB for the detuned case. These results provide a practical and readily implementable strategy for suppressing correlated technical noise in Rydberg heterodyne receivers, advancing the development of high-sensitivity electric-field metrology.
Highly sensitive detection of microwave (MW) fields throughout ultra-wideband spectrum is always an important subject in metrology, electromagnetism and cosmology. Rydberg atomic electrometers, which implement electric field measurements by detecting the disturbance of atomic energy levels, have the potentials to breakthrough the sensitivity and size limits of conventional sensors. However, due to the discrete structure of the energy levels, current measurements can only exhibit high sensitivity at the discontinuous frequencies which correspond to certain transitions. In this work, by implementing energy level modulation of Rydberg atom through Zeeman effect, we achieve continuous highly sensitive MW fields detection within 1-40 GHz ultra-wideband spectrum where the detection sensitivity is roundly below 65 nV cm-1 Hz-1/2, which is 2-3 orders of magnitude lower than that of the state-of-the-art continuous measurement architectures. The proposed method is expected to expand the working bandwidth from MHz to THz and therefore greatly accelerate the practical applications in the areas of radar and electronic reconnaissance. Detecting microwave fields across an ultra-wideband spectrum is crucial for advancements in metrology, electromagnetism, and cosmology. Here, the authors utilize Zeeman effect modulation of Rydberg atoms to achieve continuous, highly sensitive detection from 1-40 GHz, significantly enhancing sensitivity and potentially transforming radar and electronic reconnaissance applications.