Frequency-Tunable Microwave Field Detection in an Atomic Vapor Cell

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a frequency-tunable atomic vapor cell capable of detecting microwave magnetic fields from 2.3 GHz to 26.4 GHz, significantly extending the operational range of atomic magnetometers for applications in microwave imaging and sensing.

Contribution

It introduces a novel atomic vapor cell-based detector with a four orders of magnitude broader frequency range than previous magnetometers, enabling advanced microwave field characterization.

Findings

Detected microwave magnetic fields from 2.3 GHz to 26.4 GHz.

Measured the amplitude of the sigma+ component at 18 GHz.

Extended the frequency tunable range of atomic magnetometers by four orders of magnitude.

Abstract

We use an atomic vapor cell as a frequency tunable microwave field detector operating at frequencies from GHz to tens of GHz. We detect microwave magnetic fields from 2.3 GHz to 26.4 GHz, and measure the amplitude of the sigma+ component of an 18 GHz microwave field. Our proof-of-principle demonstration represents a four orders of magnitude extension of the frequency tunable range of atomic magnetometers from their previous dc to several MHz range. When integrated with a high resolution microwave imaging system, this will allow for the complete reconstruction of the vector components of a microwave magnetic field and the relative phase between them. Potential applications include near-field characterisation of microwave circuitry and devices, and medical microwave sensing and imaging.