Sensitivity improvement of Rydberg atom-based microwave sensing via electromagnetically induced transparency

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to enhance the sensitivity of Rydberg atom-based microwave sensors using electromagnetically induced transparency and detuning techniques, achieving a sensitivity of 12.50 nV/cm/Hz^{1/2}.

Contribution

It introduces a novel detuning and optimization approach to significantly improve the sensitivity of Rydberg atom microwave antennas.

Findings

Achieved a sensitivity of 12.50 nV/cm/Hz^{1/2}.

Enhanced sensitivity mechanism confirmed by theoretical simulation.

Applicable to microwave communication antennas.

Abstract

A highly excited Rydberg atom via electromagnetically induced transparency with two color cascading lasers has extreme sensitivity to electric fields of microwave ranging from 100 MHz to over 1 THz. It can be used as susceptible atom-based microwave communication antennas where the carrier wave usually works exactly resonant to the transition between a pair of adjacent Rydberg states with large electric dipole moment. A technique of superheterodyne with a strong on-resonant local microwave oscillator is employed to induce considerable Autler-Townes splitting where the antennas has a highest dynamic response to another weak target signal microwave carrier. To further improve the sensitivity of atomic antenna in communication, we detune the carrier microwave frequency off resonance forming an asymmetrically optical splitting and fix the coupling laser frequency at the shoulder of the stronger one, and optimize the local field strength simultaneously. It gives a sensitivity of 12.50(04) $\rm{nVcm^{-1}\cdot Hz^{-1/2}}$. Its enhancement mechanism of sensitivity is also proved by a theoretical simulation.