Assessment of Rydberg Atoms for Wideband Electric Field Sensing

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the potential of Rydberg atoms as wideband electric field sensors by analyzing their sensitivity across a broad frequency range and comparing their performance with existing technologies.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive quantitative analysis of Rydberg atom sensors' sensitivity and compares their performance with established electric field sensing methods.

Findings

Rydberg sensors show high sensitivity from 1 kHz to 1 THz.

Optimal sensitivity can be achieved at various frequencies using the models.

Experimental validation confirms the models' accuracy.

Abstract

Rydberg atoms have attracted significant interest recently as electric field sensors. In order to assess potential applications, detailed understanding of relevant figures of merit is necessary, particularly in relation to other, more mature, sensor technologies. Here we present a quantitative analysis of the Rydberg sensor's sensitivity to oscillating electric fields with frequencies between 1 kHz and 1 THz. Sensitivity is calculated using a combination of analytical and semi-classical Floquet models. Using these models, optimal sensitivity at arbitrary field frequency is determined. We validate the numeric Floquet model via experimental Rydberg sensor measurements over a range of 1-20 GHz. Using analytical models, we compare with two prominent electric field sensor technologies: electro-optic crystals and dipole antenna-coupled passive electronics.