Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

A miniaturized wideband Rydberg-atom superheterodyne receiver based on a microstrip balun

Jiwang Chai

Published Jul 15, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Ultra-wideband, miniaturized, and integrable local oscillator sources remain a key challenge for Rydberg-atom superheterodyne receivers. Here we demonstrate a 1–40 GHz Rydberg-atom receiver that uses a 76.3-mm-long, 1.6-mm-thick microstrip balun as the local oscillator. A load terminating the output port is used to enhance the balun near field and enable efficient coupling to the atoms. High-sensitivity electric field measurements based on the microstrip balun local oscillator are experimentally demonstrated at 9.94 and 19.63 GHz, achieving a lowest tested field of 0.79 and 0.49 µV/cm, respectively, compared with 0.40 and 0.39 µV/cm for a horn-antenna local oscillator. By combining resonant and off-resonant superheterodyne measurements across nine Rydberg transitions, we further demonstrate continuous-frequency electric field measurements from 1 to 40 GHz. These results establish the microstrip balun as a compact, broadband local oscillator source for integrated atomic receivers.

DOI
10.21203/rs.3.rs-10352890/v1

Related papers

Broadband microwave electric field measurement based on a planar dipole antenna as the local oscillator source

Jiwang Chai, Guixiang Liu, Muhan Zhang +5 more

We propose a superheterodyne microwave electric field measurement scheme based on Rydberg atoms that utilizes a planar dipole antenna as the local oscillator source. By designing a two-dimensional asymmetric dipole antenna, broadband microwave near-field radiation is achieved in the region of 1.7 GHz-9 GHz with return loss less than −10 dB, and the feasibility of using a planar antenna as the local oscillator source has been verified through simulations and experiments. In the experiments, high-sensitivity electric field measurements are performed by using near-field radiation from the planar antenna as local oscillator field for three resonant frequencies, 3.999 GHz, 5.048 GHz, and 7.981 GHz, with an optimal sensitivity of 3.16 µV/cm/Hz1/2. Comparative experiments with a horn antenna as the local oscillator source show that the planar antenna can achieve equivalent measurement sensitivity. Continuous-frequency electric field measurements are also investigated with a planar antenna in the frequency range of 2.5 GHz-9 GHz, and a minimum detectable field strength ranging from 3.16 µV/cm to 25.95 µV/cm is achieved. Our findings provide an alternative design approach for compact superheterodyne Rydberg atomic sensors.

Optics Express•Jul 21, 2025•1 citation

Local oscillator port integrated resonator for Rydberg atom-based electric field measurement enhancement

Bo Wu, Dunwei Liao, Zhenke Ding +5 more

Abstract Rydberg atom-based superheterodyne with additional local oscillator (LO) signal is a novel approach to detect electric field with high measured sensitivity. However, the LO signal is often supplied to the atomic vapor cell by free-space illumination, which lacks mobility and integration for practical applications. Here, we present a LO port integrated split-ring resonator for realizing high sensitivity-enhanced electric field measurements. The LO signal is sent directly to the resonator through a parallel-plate waveguide, which is shown to achieve a sensitivity enhancement of 32 dB. The integrated resonator has an electrical size of 0.088λ and the feed port S11 reaches −38.2 dB.

EPJ Quantum Technology•Mar 22, 2024•16 citations

Radio frequency electric field-enhanced sensing based on the Rydberg atom-based superheterodyne receiver

Wenguang Yang, Mingyong Jing, Hao Zhang +3 more

We present enhanced sensing of a radio frequency (RF) electric field (E-field) by the combined polarizability of Rydberg atoms and the optimized local oscillator (LO) field of a superheterodyne receiver. Our modified theoretical model reveals the dependencies of the sensitivity of E-field amplitude measurement on the polarizability of Rydberg states and the strength of the LO field. The enhanced sensitivities of the megahertz (MHz) E-field are demonstrated at the optimal LO field for three different Rydberg states ${\rm 43D}_{5/2}$, ${\rm 60S}_{1/2}$, and ${\rm 90S}_{1/2}$. The sensitivity of 63 MHz for the ${\rm 90S}_{1/2}$ state reaches 9.6 $\times 10^{-5}\rm \,V/m/\sqrt {Hz}$, which is approximately an order of magnitude higher than those already published. This result closely approaches the sensitivity limit of a 1 cm passive dipole antenna without using an impedance matching network. This atomic sensor based on the Rydberg Stark effect with heterodyne technique is expected to boost an alternative solution to electric dipole antennas.

Optics Letters•Apr 22, 2024•18 citations

Ultra-wideband continuous spectrum Rydberg atomic superheterodyne receiver with high sensitivity

Jiawei Yao, Zhanshan Sun, Yi Lin +6 more

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.

Communications Physics•Feb 11, 2026•1 citation

Local oscillator port embedded field enhancement resonator for Rydberg atomic heterodyne technique

Kai Yang, Ruiqi Mao, Li He +4 more

Abstract Rydberg atom-based sensors using the atomic heterodyne technique demonstrate prominent performance on sensing sensitivity and thus have significant potential for radar, electronic reconnaissance, and communication applications. Here, we propose a local oscillator (LO) embedded field enhancement resonator to improve the sensitivity and integration of Rydberg atomic heterodyne sensors. In this approach, a vapor cell filled with cesium atoms is placed into the resonance structure for electric (E) field measurements. By integrating parallel-plate waveguide (PPWG) antennas and the resonator, the LO signal can be directly guided to the resonator using coaxial cable instead of the use of external antennas radiating through free space, allowing for a more flexible and practical Rydberg atom-based heterodyne technique. Based on the off-resonant Rydberg atomic heterodyne approach, for a radio frequency (RF) signal at 638 MHz, it is found that the sensitivity is 43 μ V/cm $\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ Hz in the absence of the resonator, while in the presence of our resonator, the sensitivity is down to 854.36 nV/cm $\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ Hz , indicating 50 times or 34 dB improvement capacity of the proposed resonator. This type of enhancement resonator is expected to benefit Rydberg atomic heterodyne applications in practical environments.

EPJ Quantum Technology•Jun 26, 2023•27 citations

High-Sensitivity Rydberg Atom-Based Field Sensing Enhancement Using Miniaturized Resonator

Aojie Zhou, Yi Lin, Ruiqi Mao +4 more

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 be$10.39~\mu \text {V/cm}\sqrt {\text {Hz}}$at room temperature. With the addition of the miniaturized square spiral resonator, the sensitivity significantly improved to$2.60~\text {nV/cm}\sqrt {\text {Hz}}$, 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.

IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation•Aug 13, 2025•9 citations
Abstract Ultra-wideband, miniaturized, and integrable local oscillator sources remain a key challenge for Rydberg-atom superheterodyne receivers. Here we demonstrate a 1–40 GHz Rydberg-atom receiver that uses a 76.3-mm-long, 1.6-mm-thick microstrip balun as the local oscillator. A load terminating the output port is used to enhance the balun near field and enable efficient coupling to the atoms. High-sensitivity electric field measurements based on the microstrip balun local oscillator are experimentally demonstrated at 9.94 and 19.63 GHz, achieving a lowest tested field of 0.79 and 0.49 µV/cm, respectively, compared with 0.40 and 0.39 µV/cm for a horn-antenna local oscillator. By combining resonant and off-resonant superheterodyne measurements across nine Rydberg transitions, we further demonstrate continuous-frequency electric field measurements from 1 to 40 GHz. These results establish the microstrip balun as a compact, broadband local oscillator source for integrated atomic receivers.
We propose a superheterodyne microwave electric field measurement scheme based on Rydberg atoms that utilizes a planar dipole antenna as the local oscillator source. By designing a two-dimensional asymmetric dipole antenna, broadband microwave near-field radiation is achieved in the region of 1.7 GHz-9 GHz with return loss less than −10 dB, and the feasibility of using a planar antenna as the local oscillator source has been verified through simulations and experiments. In the experiments, high-sensitivity electric field measurements are performed by using near-field radiation from the planar antenna as local oscillator field for three resonant frequencies, 3.999 GHz, 5.048 GHz, and 7.981 GHz, with an optimal sensitivity of 3.16 µV/cm/Hz1/2. Comparative experiments with a horn antenna as the local oscillator source show that the planar antenna can achieve equivalent measurement sensitivity. Continuous-frequency electric field measurements are also investigated with a planar antenna in the frequency range of 2.5 GHz-9 GHz, and a minimum detectable field strength ranging from 3.16 µV/cm to 25.95 µV/cm is achieved. Our findings provide an alternative design approach for compact superheterodyne Rydberg atomic sensors.
Abstract Rydberg atom-based superheterodyne with additional local oscillator (LO) signal is a novel approach to detect electric field with high measured sensitivity. However, the LO signal is often supplied to the atomic vapor cell by free-space illumination, which lacks mobility and integration for practical applications. Here, we present a LO port integrated split-ring resonator for realizing high sensitivity-enhanced electric field measurements. The LO signal is sent directly to the resonator through a parallel-plate waveguide, which is shown to achieve a sensitivity enhancement of 32 dB. The integrated resonator has an electrical size of 0.088λ and the feed port S11 reaches −38.2 dB.
We present enhanced sensing of a radio frequency (RF) electric field (E-field) by the combined polarizability of Rydberg atoms and the optimized local oscillator (LO) field of a superheterodyne receiver. Our modified theoretical model reveals the dependencies of the sensitivity of E-field amplitude measurement on the polarizability of Rydberg states and the strength of the LO field. The enhanced sensitivities of the megahertz (MHz) E-field are demonstrated at the optimal LO field for three different Rydberg states 43D5/2{\rm 43D}_{5/2}43D5/2​, 60S1/2{\rm 60S}_{1/2}60S1/2​, and 90S1/2{\rm 90S}_{1/2}90S1/2​. The sensitivity of 63 MHz for the 90S1/2{\rm 90S}_{1/2}90S1/2​ state reaches 9.6 ×10−5 V/m/Hz\times 10^{-5}\rm \,V/m/\sqrt {Hz}×10−5V/m/Hz​, which is approximately an order of magnitude higher than those already published. This result closely approaches the sensitivity limit of a 1 cm passive dipole antenna without using an impedance matching network. This atomic sensor based on the Rydberg Stark effect with heterodyne technique is expected to boost an alternative solution to electric dipole antennas.
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.
Abstract Rydberg atom-based sensors using the atomic heterodyne technique demonstrate prominent performance on sensing sensitivity and thus have significant potential for radar, electronic reconnaissance, and communication applications. Here, we propose a local oscillator (LO) embedded field enhancement resonator to improve the sensitivity and integration of Rydberg atomic heterodyne sensors. In this approach, a vapor cell filled with cesium atoms is placed into the resonance structure for electric (E) field measurements. By integrating parallel-plate waveguide (PPWG) antennas and the resonator, the LO signal can be directly guided to the resonator using coaxial cable instead of the use of external antennas radiating through free space, allowing for a more flexible and practical Rydberg atom-based heterodyne technique. Based on the off-resonant Rydberg atomic heterodyne approach, for a radio frequency (RF) signal at 638 MHz, it is found that the sensitivity is 43 μ V/cm Hz\sqrt{\text{Hz}}Hz​ Hz in the absence of the resonator, while in the presence of our resonator, the sensitivity is down to 854.36 nV/cm Hz\sqrt{\text{Hz}}Hz​ Hz , indicating 50 times or 34 dB improvement capacity of the proposed resonator. This type of enhancement resonator is expected to benefit Rydberg atomic heterodyne applications in practical environments.
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.