Measurement of DC and AC electric fields inside an atomic vapor cell with wall-integrated electrodes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel atomic vapor cell with embedded electrodes for precise optical measurement of DC and microwave electric fields using Rydberg atom spectroscopy, enabling detailed field characterization inside the cell.

Contribution

The study demonstrates the integration of wall-embedded electrodes in an atomic vapor cell and employs Rydberg atom spectroscopy for accurate electric field measurements, including DC and microwave fields.

Findings

Measured DC electric fields with 10% uncertainty.

Quantified electric-field attenuation due to surface charges.

Characterized microwave field propagation and polarization effects.

Abstract

We present and characterize an atomic vapor cell with silicon ring electrodes directly embedded between borosilicate glass tubes. The cell is assembled with an anodic bonding method and is filled with Rb vapor. The ring electrodes can be externally connectorized for application of electric fields to the inside of the cell. An atom-based, all-optical, laser-spectroscopic field sensing method is employed to measure electric fields in the cell. Here, the Stark effect of electric-field-sensitive rubidium Rydberg atoms is exploited to measure DC electric fields in the cell of $\sim$5 V/cm, with a relative uncertainty of 10%. Measurement results are compared with DC field calculations, allowing us to quantify electric-field attenuation due to free surface charges inside the cell. We further measure the propagation of microwave fields into the cell, using Autler-Townes splitting of Rydberg levels as a field probe. Results are obtained for a range of microwave powers and polarization angles relative to the cell's ring electrodes. We compare the results with microwave-field calculations. Applications are discussed.