A New Quantum-Based Power Standard: Using Rydberg Atoms for a SI-Traceable Radio-Frequency Power Measurement Technique in Rectangular Waveguides

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel SI-traceable method for measuring RF power using Rydberg atoms and electromagnetically induced transparency in a waveguide, providing a quantum-based standard with demonstrated accuracy.

Contribution

The work presents a new quantum-based RF power measurement technique using Rydberg atoms and EIT, enabling direct SI-traceable measurements in waveguides.

Findings

Accurate measurement of RF power at 19.629 GHz and 26.526 GHz.

Good agreement with conventional power meters.

Demonstration of a quantum standard for RF power measurement.

Abstract

In this work we demonstrate an approach for the measurement of radio-frequency (RF) power using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a Rydberg atomic vapor. This is accomplished by placing alkali atomic vapor in a rectangular waveguide and measuring the electric (E) field strength (utilizing EIT and Autler-Townes splitting) for a wave propagating down the waveguide. The RF power carried by the wave is then related to this measured E-field, which leads to a new direct International System of Units (SI) measurement of RF power. To demonstrate this approach, we first measure the field distribution of the fundamental mode in the waveguide and then measure the power carried by the wave at both 19.629 GHz and 26.526 GHz. We obtain good agreement between the power measurements obtained with this new technique and those obtained with a conventional power meter.