Two-dimensional imaging of electromagnetic fields via light sheet fluorescence imaging with Rydberg atoms

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to spatially image electromagnetic fields using light sheet fluorescence imaging of Rydberg atoms, enabling high-resolution, minimally invasive measurements of electric and magnetic fields across a range of strengths.

Contribution

The authors demonstrate spatially resolved electromagnetically induced transparency imaging of Rydberg atoms, achieving high sensitivity and resolution for electric and magnetic field measurements without field distortion.

Findings

Imaged electric fields of ~ V/cm scale in the DC-GHz range.

Imaged static magnetic fields of ~ mT scale.

Achieved a spatial resolution of 160 μm, with a fundamental limit of 5 μm.

Abstract

The ability to image electromagnetic fields holds key scientific and industrial applications, including electromagnetic compatibility, diagnostics of high-frequency devices, and experimental scientific work involving field interactions. Generally electric and magnetic field measurements require conductive elements which significantly distort the field. However, electromagnetic fields can be measured without altering the field via the shift they induce on Rydberg states of alkali atoms in atomic vapor, which are highly sensitive to electric fields. Previous field measurements using Rydberg atoms utilized electromagnetically induced transparency to read out the shift on the states induced by the fields, but did not provide spatial resolution. In this work, we demonstrate that electromagnetically induced transparency can be spatially resolved by imaging the fluorescence of the atoms. We demonstrate that this can be used to image $\sim$ V/cm scale electric fields in the DC-GHz range and $\sim$ mT scale static magnetic fields, with minimal distortion to the fields. We also demonstrate the ability to image $\sim$ 5 mV/cm scale fields for resonant microwave radiation and measure standing waves generated by the partial reflection of the vapor cell walls in this regime. With additional processing techniques like lock-in detection, we predict that our sensitivities could reach down to nV/cm levels. We perform this field imaging with a spatial resolution of 160 $\mu$m, limited by our imaging system, and estimate the fundamental resolution limitation to be 5 $\mu$m.