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IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement

Instantaneous Bandwidth Enhancement of Rydberg Receiver Based on Dual-Wave Mixing Matching Optimization

Wang Qimeng, Qiang An, Yunqi Fu

Published Jan 1, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In the field of Instrumentation & Measurement (I&M), overcoming the inherent trade-off between instantaneous bandwidth and sensitivity in Rydberg atom-based microwave electrometry remains a significant challenge. We propose a novel method of co-optimizing the Rabi frequencies of dual microwave fields (LO and SIG). This enables simultaneous enhancement of instantaneous bandwidth and sensitivity in a Rydberg-based receiver. In experimental settings, the significant power disparity between heterodyne fields typically necessitates an increase in the power of the local oscillator (LO) field. Conventional measurement techniques under such high power differentials can induce high-order harmonics—a phenomenon associated with the Floquet effect—resulting in deviations from resonant behavior and an increase in noise. This, in turn, reduces the atomic population distribution and constrains the system bandwidth. Leveraging the sensitivity enhancement mechanisms provided by electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and Autler–Townes (AT) splitting, we experimentally characterized the relationship between the Rabi frequencies of the LO and the target signal (SIG) microwave fields. Our approach enables the optimization and fine-tuning of parameters of the auxiliary microwave field to mitigate performance degradation caused by these nonlinear effects, thereby extending the frequency response of the system beyond the limitations of conventional resonance-based methods. As a result, our team has achieved an instantaneous bandwidth of 7.1 MHz coupled with a sensitivity of 51nV cm−1Hz−1/2under a -41 dBm power difference condition. This work establishes a new instrumentation framework for high-dynamic-range sensing, directly addressing I&M limitations in nonlinear artifact suppression.

DOI
10.1109/tim.2026.3655895

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In the field of Instrumentation & Measurement (I&M), overcoming the inherent trade-off between instantaneous bandwidth and sensitivity in Rydberg atom-based microwave electrometry remains a significant challenge. We propose a novel method of co-optimizing the Rabi frequencies of dual microwave fields (LO and SIG). This enables simultaneous enhancement of instantaneous bandwidth and sensitivity in a Rydberg-based receiver. In experimental settings, the significant power disparity between heterodyne fields typically necessitates an increase in the power of the local oscillator (LO) field. Conventional measurement techniques under such high power differentials can induce high-order harmonics—a phenomenon associated with the Floquet effect—resulting in deviations from resonant behavior and an increase in noise. This, in turn, reduces the atomic population distribution and constrains the system bandwidth. Leveraging the sensitivity enhancement mechanisms provided by electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and Autler–Townes (AT) splitting, we experimentally characterized the relationship between the Rabi frequencies of the LO and the target signal (SIG) microwave fields. Our approach enables the optimization and fine-tuning of parameters of the auxiliary microwave field to mitigate performance degradation caused by these nonlinear effects, thereby extending the frequency response of the system beyond the limitations of conventional resonance-based methods. As a result, our team has achieved an instantaneous bandwidth of 7.1 MHz coupled with a sensitivity of 51nV cm−1Hz−1/2under a -41 dBm power difference condition. This work establishes a new instrumentation framework for high-dynamic-range sensing, directly addressing I&M limitations in nonlinear artifact suppression.
We demonstrate the use of an auxiliary microwave field to extend the bandwidth sensitivity of Rydberg-atom-based microwave electrometry. Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and Autler-Townes (AT) splitting in Rydberg atom microwave electrometry provide advantageous sensitivity for the resonant detection of microwave (MW) fields because the Stark shift of the target Rydberg state takes the linear form of AT splitting. However, the sensitivity is reduced by several orders of magnitude for detuned MW fields because the Stark shift of the target Rydberg state depends on a weak nonlinear effect. We show that the auxiliary microwave field with appropriate Rabi frequency or detuning could shift the atomic energy levels to bring a particular Rydberg-Rydberg transition of interest for microwave sensing into resonance with the target microwave field. Using the atomic superheterodyne method, we verified the general method that regulates Rydberg energy levels using an auxiliary microwave field. The experimental results of this study confirm that this technique works efficiently for detecting microwave fields detuned by up to 100 MHz from resonance with the field-free Rydberg-Rydberg transition used for sensing. The measurement sensitivity of the detuned target field is increased by a factor of 10 compared with that achieved without the application of the auxiliary dressing field.
The application of magnetic fields for frequency tuning of Autler-Townes (AT) splitting in Rydberg electrometry has been experimentally demonstrated. In this article, we provide a theoretical understanding of Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) signals with gradient magnetic fields and demonstrate some advantages of this technology compared to traditional Rydberg electrometry. Our experiments demonstrate that customized Anti-Helmholtz coil configurations enable Zee-man splitting (mJlevel separation) and state dressing in Rydberg atoms, yielding broadband EIT-AT spectra. Additionally, We investigated the response bandwidth of a Rydberg atomic receiver in a superheterodyne architecture. We proposed a gradient vector magnetic field configuration that extends the system’s instantaneous bandwidth to MHz, while achieving a sensitivity of 53nV cm–1Hz–1/2comparable to conventional schemes. Our work is expected to expand the application of Rydberg atoms in multiple fields such as electronic information, communication, and electric field measurement.
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.
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.
Improving the bandwidth of Rydberg atom-based receivers is an ongoing challenge because of the long-lived Rydberg state lifetimes that limit the refresh rate of ground-state atoms. In particular, the local oscillator (LO)-based Rydberg mixer approach allows for bandwidths in a few MHz ranges. Here, we use the laser parameters of the Rydberg atomic receiver superheterodyne detection technology to study their respective bandwidths. We have confirmed through experiments that laser power and waist diameter can affect the Rabi frequency and thus alter the instantaneous bandwidth. The experimental results indicate that the instantaneous bandwidth is directly proportional to the Rabi frequency of the coupled light and inversely proportional to the Rabi frequency of the probe light. Optimal parameters for quantum sensing applications are identified through powerdependent Rabi oscillation measurements.
Quantum sensing using Rydberg atoms offers unprecedented opportunities for next-generation radar systems, transcending classical limitations in miniaturization and spectral agility. This work proposes a quantum-enhanced radar reception architecture that replaces conventional antenna-tomixer chains with a centimeter-scale vapor cell as a quantum radio frequency (RF) field sensor and mixer, enabling this paradigm for radar sensing. This approach is based on electromagnetically induced transparency, which uses Autler-Townes splitting to enable direct RF-to-optical downconversion within the atomic medium via an external co-frequency reference. To circumvent the range-resolution limitation imposed by the narrow instantaneous response of the atomic receiver, we adopt a stepped-frequency synthesis strategy involving the hybrid manipulation of Rydberg energy states. This strategy combines coarse laser frequency tuning with fine AC-Stark shift compensation. Additionally, we establish a nonlinear response model of the Rydberg atomic homodyne receiver and propose a customized nonlinear compensation method that extends the linear dynamic range by over 7 dB. We developed a compressive sensing-based algorithm (CS-Rydberg) to suppress noise and mitigate the undersampling problem. Experimentally, we demonstrate a compact prototype that achieves centimeter-level ranging precision (RMSE = 1.06 cm) within 1.6–1.9 m. By synthesizing a 1-GHz equivalent bandwidth via sparse stepped-frequency sampling over 2.6–3.6 GHz, we observe resolvable target separations down to 15 cm under controlled sparse scenarios. These results validate the feasibility of quantum sensing based on Rydberg atomic receivers and underscore the architecture’s scalability. By harnessing the atoms’ ultrabroad spectral response, the synthesized bandwidth can extend well beyond the current range. This enables sub-centimeter resolution in future radar systems while preserving quantum traceable calibration and a highly simplified front end.