The credibility of Rydberg atom based digital communication over a continuously tunable radio-frequency carrier

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of using Rydberg atom-based electromagnetically induced transparency for reliable digital RF communication over a 200 MHz bandwidth at 10.22 GHz, with a 500 kbps data rate and acceptable error rates.

Contribution

It provides experimental validation of Rydberg atom-based quantum sensors for broadband digital communication and spectrum sensing at room temperature.

Findings

Reliable digital communication at 500 kbps within 200 MHz bandwidth.

Bit error rate up to 15% at RF detuning of ±150 MHz.

Linear gain response improves signal fidelity.

Abstract

High-sensitive measurement of radio-frequency (RF) electric field is available via the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) effect of Rydberg atom at room-temperature, which has been developed to be a promising atomic RF receiver. In this Letter, we investigate the credibility of the digital communication via this quantum-based antenna over the entire continuously tunable RF-carrier. Our experiment shows that digital communication at a rate of 500 kbps performs reliably within a tunable bandwidth of 200 MHz at carrier 10.22 GHz and a bit error rate (BER) appears out of this range, for example, the BER runs up to 15 % at RF-detuning $\pm150$ MHz. In the measurement, the time-variant RF field is retrieved by detecting the density of the probe laser at the center frequency of RF-induced symmetric or asymmetric Autler-Townes splitting in EIT. Prior to the digital test, we have studied the RF-receiving quality versus the physical ambiance and found that a choice of linear gain response to the RF-amplitude can suppress the signal distortion and the modulating signal is able to be decoded as fast as up to 500 kHz in the tunable bandwidth. Our checkout consolidates the physical foundation for a reliable communication and spectrum sensing over the broadband RF-carrier.