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IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters

A Cascaded Cavity Resonator for Broadband Electric Field Enhancement in Rydberg Microwave Measurements

Ge Gao, Minze Chen, Aobei Chen, Haonan Feng, Zhiao Zhu, Zhonghuai Wu, Dezhi Zheng

Published Oct 14, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Rydberg atom-based microwave measurement technology has gained attention for its self-calibration, high sensitivity, and wide frequency response. To enhance sensitivity, resonators are typically employed for localized electric field enhancement. With the introduction of AC/DC Stark tuning and laser scanning techniques, resonator designs have been developed to support extended frequency coverage. However, these require sequential scanning or switching to cover the target range, limiting their applicability in passband-wide, multi-frequency detection. To address this issue, this paper proposes a cascaded cavity resonator (CCR) that enables continuous field enhancement within the target S-band range. A theoretical model was established and the key dimensions were optimized via COMSOL-based simulation of the vapor cell's spatial field distribution. Subsequently, validation through Autler-Townes (AT) effect and heterodyne technology confirms that the proposed structure enhances sensitivity by$ \geq$27.2 dB within the 2.781-3.008 GHz bandwidth. This work supports systematic exploration of Rydberg-atom response across a broader spectral range and enables multi-frequency detection without stepwise tuning.

DOI
10.1109/lawp.2025.3621295

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Rydberg atom-based microwave measurement technology has gained attention for its self-calibration, high sensitivity, and wide frequency response. To enhance sensitivity, resonators are typically employed for localized electric field enhancement. With the introduction of AC/DC Stark tuning and laser scanning techniques, resonator designs have been developed to support extended frequency coverage. However, these require sequential scanning or switching to cover the target range, limiting their applicability in passband-wide, multi-frequency detection. To address this issue, this paper proposes a cascaded cavity resonator (CCR) that enables continuous field enhancement within the target S-band range. A theoretical model was established and the key dimensions were optimized via COMSOL-based simulation of the vapor cell's spatial field distribution. Subsequently, validation through Autler-Townes (AT) effect and heterodyne technology confirms that the proposed structure enhances sensitivity by≥ \geq≥27.2 dB within the 2.781-3.008 GHz bandwidth. This work supports systematic exploration of Rydberg-atom response across a broader spectral range and enables multi-frequency detection without stepwise tuning.
Quantum microwave measurement techniques based on Rydberg atoms have the advantages of self-calibration, low interference with external electric fields, and a wide range of measurement frequencies. However, the current quantum microwave sensitivity measurement capability is not yet comparable to that of classical receivers. Loading the electric field enhancement structure outside the vapor cell can effectively improve its sensitivity, but at the same time, it also leads to the narrowing of the measurement bandwidth. To fully utilize the advantages of quantum microwave measurement technology, we propose a tunable local electric field enhancement structure by combining a varactor diode, its tuning frequency covers 0.286 to 0.427 GHz, and the electric field enhancement ranges from 120 to 712.
We present a Rydberg atom-based microwave electric field sensor that achieves extended dynamic range and enhanced sensitivity across a broad bandwidth. By characterizing the Autler-Townes (AT) splitting induced by a single-tone microwave field, we demonstrate a spectroscopic method that simultaneously extracts both the microwave frequency and electric field strength directly from the splitting pattern. We implement dual-tone heterodyne detection, achieving a minimum detectable field strength on the order of uV/cm and a sensitivity in the sub-uV/cm/Hz^1/2 regime, while extending the operational bandwidth up to 3 GHz. Through systematic characterization of frequency and power dependencies, we identify optimal operating conditions to minimize power broadening in the resonant AT regime and maximize sensitivity in the far-off-resonance AC Stark regime. The resulting platform combines high sensitivity, broad bandwidth, and a dynamic range of approximately 90 dB, establishing Rydberg atoms as practical sensors for precision electric field metrology.
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.
We demonstrate a method for broadband tunable continuous frequency electric field measurement based on the DC Stark effect in Rydberg atoms. In our experiment, we place a pair of parallel electrode plates inside the atomic vapor cell, utilizing the DC Stark effect to induce splitting and shifting of the Rydberg energy levels, thereby altering the resonance frequency of the Stark subpeaks. By employing the 52D5/2 Rydberg state, we achieve electric field measurements in the frequency range of 5.083–14.470 GHz. At an EDC of 3.45 V/cm and a resonant microwave frequency of 14.470 GHz, using heterodyne technology, the microwave electric field sensitivity is 538.89 μV/cm/√Hz, with a linear dynamic range of 23 dB. In comparison, a Rydberg heterodyne receiver with an EDC of 0 V/cm and a resonant microwave frequency of 5.083 GHz has a sensitivity of 5.43 μV/cm/√Hz and a linear dynamic range of 51 dB. This work will promote the study of atomic microwave receivers in continuous microwave frequency measurement.
Rydberg atomic receivers (RARs) have emerged in the field of quantum precision measurement due to high sensitivity and self-calibration. In this letter, we demonstrate a compact tunable enhancement resonator (CTER) for enhancing the detective sensitivity of the RAR. The resonator consists of two printed circuit board (PCB) substrates and a copper tuning column, which achieves resonant frequency variation by continuously sliding the copper tuning column. During the measurement, we have achieved electric field enhancement in the 210 MHz to 308.6 MHz band with a relative bandwidth of 38%\%%and the enhancement factor ranging from 38 dB to 47 dB. By adjusting the height of the CTER, different sizes of atomic vapor cells can be accommodated while maintaining good enhancement. In theoff-resonant region, the detective sensitivity of the RAR with and without CTER at 223.7 MHz were measured at 179.37 nV⋅cm−1\cdot {\text{cm}}^{-1}⋅cm−1$ \cdot {\text{Hz}}^{-1/2}and40.16and 40.16and40.16\muVVV\cdotcm−1\text{cm}^{-1}cm−1 \cdot {\text{Hz}}^{-1/2}byutilizingtheRydbergatomicheterodynetechnique,respectively.Furthermore,theCTERdisplaysacompactelectricalsize,approximately3.37×10by utilizing the Rydberg atomic heterodyne technique, respectively. Furthermore, the CTER displays a compact electrical size, approximately 3.37× 10byutilizingtheRydbergatomicheterodynetechnique,respectively.Furthermore,theCTERdisplaysacompactelectricalsize,approximately3.37×10^{-5}$λ3\lambda ^{3}λ3in comparison to other resonators, which facilitates the miniaturization and integration of the RAR. Its remarkable resonance characteristics and broadband tuning capability provide support for achieving high-sensitivity and broadband quantum microwave measurements.
High-sensitivity amplitude and frequency detection of microwave electric fields is of significant importance in various fields, including communications, microwave quantum technology, aerospace, medicine, and meteorology. Rydberg atom-based sensors promise traceable standards and high sensitivity for detecting weak electric fields and enhancing sensing sensitivity, mainly by using superheterodyne technology and resonant structures. Detecting high-frequency (HF) band fields with high sensitivity using Rydberg atom sensors is a significant challenge due to the requirement of exciting atoms to extremely high energy states for resonant detection. We demonstrate the off-resonant Rydberg atomic superheterodyne architecture with additional resonators for greatly enhancing the sensing sensitivity to HF band fields. In this approach, we propose a miniaturized square spiral resonator with an electrical size of$0.011~\lambda $at 15.54 MHz. To reduce the electric-field-screening effect of the adsorption of alkali metal atoms, we use a monocrystalline sapphire cesium (Cs) vapor cell. By utilizing the off-resonant alternating current (ac) Stark effect, the initial sensitivity of the Rydberg atom sensor without the resonator is measured to be10.39 μV/cmHz10.39~\mu \text {V/cm}\sqrt {\text {Hz}}10.39 μV/cmHz​at room temperature. With the addition of the miniaturized square spiral resonator, the sensitivity significantly improved to2.60 nV/cmHz2.60~\text {nV/cm}\sqrt {\text {Hz}}2.60 nV/cmHz​, which has been inaccessible so far with atomic sensors. Here, we provide an enhancement of 72 dB, which is three orders of magnitude improvement in sensitivity than when the resonator is not used. This enhancement resonator extends Rydberg atomic high-sensitivity sensing to the HF band and shows great potential, especially in shortwave radio reception.