High angular momentum coupling for enhanced Rydberg-atom sensing in the VHF band

Abstract

Recent advances in Rydberg atom electrometry detail promising applications in radio frequency (RF) communications. Presently, most applications use carrier frequencies greater than 1~GHz where resonant Autler-Townes splitting provides the highest sensitivity. This letter documents a series of experiments with Rydberg atomic sensors to collect and process waveforms from the automated identification system (AIS) used in maritime navigation in the Very High Frequency (VHF) band. Detection in this band is difficult with conventional resonant Autler-Townes based Rydberg sensing and requires a new approach. We show the results from a new method called High Angular Momentum Matching Excited Raman (HAMMER), which enhances low frequency detection and exhibits superior sensitivity compared to the traditional AC Stark effect. From measurements of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in rubidium and cesium vapor cells, we show the relationship between incident electric field strength and observed signal-to-noise ratio and find that the sensitivity of the HAMMER scheme in rubidium achieved an equivalent single VHF tone sensitivity of $100\mu V/m/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$. With these results, we estimate the usable range of the atomic vapor cell antenna for AIS waveforms given current technology and detection techniques.

9 figure, 8 pages

References in corpus (5)

• Broadband Rydberg Atom-Based Electric-Field Probe: From Self-Calibrated Measurements to Sub-Wavelength Imaging
• Determining the Angle-of-Arrival of an Radio-Frequency Source with a Rydberg Atom-Based Sensor
• Quantum Physics Meets Music: A "Real-Time" Guitar Recording Using Rydberg-Atoms and Electromagnetically Induced Transparency
• Data capacity scaling of a distributed Rydberg atomic receiver array
• High-angular-momentum Rydberg states in a room-temperature vapor cell for DC electric-field sensing

Cited by in corpus (3)

• High-angular-momentum Rydberg states in a room-temperature vapor cell for DC electric-field sensing
• Effects of inert background gases and photo-illumination on three-color electromagnetically induced transparency of rubidium vapor
• Hyperfine structure and collisions in three-photon Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency