Broadband Rydberg Atom-Based Electric-Field Probe: From Self-Calibrated Measurements to Sub-Wavelength Imaging

Abstract

We discuss a fundamentally new approach for the measurement of electric (E) fields that will lead to the development of a broadband, direct SI-traceable, compact, self-calibrating E-field probe (sensor). This approach is based on the interaction of radio frequency (RF) fields with alkali atoms excited to Rydberg states. The RF field causes an energy splitting of the Rydberg states via the Autler-Townes effect and we detect the splitting via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). In effect, alkali atoms placed in a vapor cell act like an RF-to-optical transducer, converting an RF E-field strength measurement to an optical frequency measurement. We demonstrate the broadband nature of this approach by showing that one small vapor cell can be used to measure E-field strengths over a wide range of frequencies: 1 GHz to 500 GHz. The technique is validated by comparing experimental data to both numerical simulations and far-field calculations for various frequencies. We also discuss various applications, including: a direct traceable measurement, the ability to measure both weak and strong field strengths, compact form factors of the probe, and sub-wavelength imaging and field mapping.

12 pages, 20 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Sub-Wavelength Imaging and Field Mapping via EIT and Autler-Townes Splitting In Rydberg Atoms
• Millimeter Wave Detection via Autler-Townes Splitting in Rubidium Rydberg Atoms
• Electric field sensing near the surface microstructure of an atom chip using cold Rydberg atoms

Cited by in corpus (10)

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• Determining the Angle-of-Arrival of an Radio-Frequency Source with a Rydberg Atom-Based Sensor
• Continuous radio frequency electric-field detection through adjacent Rydberg resonance tuning
• Simultaneous Use of Cs and Rb Rydberg Atoms for Independent RF Electric Field Measurements via Electromagnetically Induced Transparency
• Quantum Physics Meets Music: A "Real-Time" Guitar Recording Using Rydberg-Atoms and Electromagnetically Induced Transparency
• Continuous-frequency measurements of high-intensity microwave electric fields with atomic vapor cells
• Rydberg Electrometry for Optical Lattice Clocks
• Probing interactions between Rydberg atoms with large electric dipole moments in amplitude modulated electric fields
• Rydberg level shift due to the electric field generated by Rydberg atom collision induced ionization in cesium atomic ensemble
• Random search for a dark resonance