Continuous radio frequency electric-field detection through adjacent Rydberg resonance tuning

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method for continuous RF electric-field detection using adjacent Rydberg resonance tuning, significantly enhancing sensitivity and bandwidth compared to traditional single-resonance techniques.

Contribution

The authors develop a two-photon Autler-Townes splitting technique utilizing adjacent Rydberg states for improved continuous RF detection over a broad frequency range.

Findings

Two-photon AT splitting enhances sensitivity by several orders of magnitude.

Detection of RF fields across a continuous frequency band between Rydberg resonances.

Experimental and theoretical validation of the multi-level Rydberg scheme.

Abstract

We demonstrate the use of multiple atomic-level Rydberg-atom schemes for continuous frequency detection of radio frequency (RF) fields. Resonant detection of RF fields by electromagnetically-induced transparency and Autler-Townes (AT) in Rydberg atoms is typically limited to frequencies within the narrow bandwidth of a Rydberg transition. By applying a second field resonant with an adjacent Rydberg transition, far-detuned fields can be detected through a two-photon resonance AT splitting. This two-photon AT splitting method is several orders of magnitude more sensitive than off-resonant detection using the Stark shift. We present the results of various experimental configurations and a theoretical analysis to illustrate the effectiveness of this multiple level scheme. These results show that this approach allows for the detection of frequencies in continuous band between resonances with adjacent Rydberg states.