Atomic superheterodyne receiver Sensitivity estimation based on homodyne readout

TL;DR

This paper investigates the sensitivity of a Rydberg atomic vapor cell-based heterodyne receiver combined with a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, showing that laser and microwave detuning improve detection sensitivity and phase readout outperforms intensity readout.

Contribution

It introduces a phase-based readout scheme for Rydberg atomic heterodyne receivers and analyzes how detuning parameters enhance sensitivity, providing theoretical insights and optimization strategies.

Findings

Detuning improves detection sensitivity.

Phase readout outperforms intensity readout.

Theoretical analysis guides sensitivity optimization.

Abstract

The electric field measurement sensitivity based on the Rydberg atomic vapor cell has great theoretical advantages over traditional dipole antennas. We combine the Rydberg atomic heterodyne receiver and the Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) with high phase detection sensitivity to evaluate the system reception sensitivity based on the transmitted laser phase shift. We conduct a theoretical investigation into the impacts of local microwave electric field frequency detuning, and laser frequency detuning on enhancing the sensitivity of heterodyne Rydberg atomic receiver based on MZI. To optimize the output signal amplitude given the input microwave signal, we derive the steady-state solutions of the atomic density matrix. Numerical results show that laser frequency detuning and local microwave electric field frequency detuning can improve the system detection sensitivity, which can help the system achieve extra sensitivity gain. It also shows that the phase-based readout scheme of heterodyne Rydberg atomic receiver based on MZI can achieve better sensitivity than the intensity-based readout scheme of heterodyne Rydberg atomic receiver.