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International Conference on Microwave and Millimeter Wave Technology (ICMMT)

Resonant Rydberg Microwave Frequency Comb Spectroscopy Based on Transverse Electromagnetic Cell Coupled Rydberg Atoms

Xiangyu Li, Hongjin Chen, Di Sang, Qiang An, Yunqi Fu

Published May 19, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Microwave frequency comb represents one of the effective solutions to address the bandwidth limitation in Rydberg atom-based microwave measurements. Here, we demonstrate that by optimizing the phase and intensity of the microwave frequency comb, the average spectral response can be enhanced to achieve optimal flatness in the microwave frequency comb spectrum. This optimization enables the realization of instantaneous bandwidth for a Rydberg receiver at a resonant frequency of 8.556 GHz. This work holds significant implications for the detection of broadband instantaneous microwave signals in Rydberg atom systems, with substantial application potential in fields such as microwave frequency metrology, communications, and radar.

DOI
10.1109/icmmt65948.2025.11187510

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Microwave frequency comb represents one of the effective solutions to address the bandwidth limitation in Rydberg atom-based microwave measurements. Here, we demonstrate that by optimizing the phase and intensity of the microwave frequency comb, the average spectral response can be enhanced to achieve optimal flatness in the microwave frequency comb spectrum. This optimization enables the realization of instantaneous bandwidth for a Rydberg receiver at a resonant frequency of 8.556 GHz. This work holds significant implications for the detection of broadband instantaneous microwave signals in Rydberg atom systems, with substantial application potential in fields such as microwave frequency metrology, communications, and radar.
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Rydberg-atom-based microwave (MW) sensors offer high sensitivity and intrinsic traceability, but their instantaneous bandwidth is fundamentally limited by atomic coherence time. Here, we introduce a scalable sensing architecture that overcomes this limitation by spatially multiplexing atomic detection channels with a Stark comb, in which an MW frequency comb (MFC) and a position-dependent Stark field enable each Rydberg vapor cell to function as an independent frequency-selective heterodyne receiver. We experimentally validate the 210 MHz instantaneous-bandwidth channelized receiver architecture through sequential characterization of individual Stark-shifted channels using a 21-line MFC, while maintaining an overall sensitivity of 326.6 nVcm −1 Hz −1/2 despite a 160 MHz tuning of the carrier resonance frequency. Full simultaneous operation across the 210 MHz bandwidth requires parallel implementation and readout of all channels. This scalable architecture enables on-demand instantaneous bandwidth while preserving sensitivity, providing a pathway toward real-time broadband MW detection for radar, communications, and spectrum monitoring.
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Rydberg atoms have become a promising novel type of microwave sensor due to their excellent physical properties -- broad frequency coverage and large electric dipole moments. High sensitivity and broad instantaneous bandwidth are two indispensable requirements for deployable Rydberg microwave sensors. However, enabling broadband operation while retaining high sensitivity has been a longstanding barrier limiting their applications. We propose and experimentally demonstrate a Rydberg microwave sensor whose instantaneous bandwidth is significantly enhanced via an auxiliary microwave field. By finely modulating the Rydberg energy levels with this field, we broaden the bandwidth substantially while retaining the sensor's inherent high sensitivity. An instantaneous bandwidth of 44.6 \,MHz ($\pm22.322.322.3\,MHz)withasensitivityof225.7MHz) with a sensitivity of 225.7MHz)withasensitivityof225.7\,nVnVnV\,cmcmcm^{-1}\,HzHzHz^{-1/2}$ is realized in a thermal 87^{87}87Rb vapor with the local microwave frequency of 16.03 \,GHz. Our work delivers concurrent broad instantaneous bandwidth and high sensitivity for Rydberg microwave sensors, paving a technically viable path for their practical deployment in broadband microwave metrology, radar, and wireless communication.
Achieving 100 \,MHz Instantaneous Bandwidth in a Broadband Rydberg Microwave Sensor
Rydberg atoms have attracted considerable attention in recent years as a novel platform for microwave sensing, owing to their unique physical merits: large transition dipole moments between Rydberg levels and broad frequency coverage. As a critical figure of merit for Rydberg microwave sensors, instantaneous bandwidth serves as a key benchmark for evaluating their viability in practical applications. Previous studies on instantaneous bandwidth remain limited to single-frequency operation, with typical demonstrated values of only tens of megahertz, a constraint that hampers the real-world deployment of this sensing technology. Here, we experimentally achieve an instantaneous bandwidth of over 100 \,MHz across a broad frequency range of 2.7-20 \,GHz and realize a sensitivity in the hundreds of nV \,cm−1 ^{-1}\,−1Hz−1/2^{-1/2}−1/2 range. The physical mechanism lies in the dressed-state coherence and the interference effect between different transition channels. Our work substantially broadens the instantaneous bandwidth of Rydberg microwave sensors and paves the way for their practical deployment in fields such as radar and wireless communications.
The developing frequency-comb spectral technologies have potential applications and prospects in the wide fields of cosmology, meteorology, and microwave measurement. Here, we demonstrate a Rydberg microwave-frequency-comb spectrometer via multiple-microwave field dressing, providing precise microwave measurement. The Rydberg microwave-frequency-comb spectrum provides a real-time and absolute-frequency measurement with a range of 125 MHz and gives the relative phase of a single-frequency microwave signal. The reported experiment helps real-time sensing of an unknown microwave signal over a wide range using Rydberg atoms, which are vital for Rydberg-atom-based microwave 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.