Rydberg-atom-based single-photon detection for haloscope axion searches

Abstract

We propose a Rydberg-atom-based single-photon detector for signal readout in dark matter haloscope experiments between 40 $\mu$eV and 200 $\mu$eV (10 GHz and 50 GHz). At these frequencies, standard haloscope readout using linear amplifiers is limited by quantum measurement noise, which can be avoided by using a single-photon detector. Our single-photon detection scheme can offer scan rate enhancements up to a factor of $10^4$ over traditional linear amplifier readout, and is compatible with many different haloscope cavities. We identify multiple haloscope designs that could use our Rydberg-atom-based single-photon detector to search for QCD axions with masses above 40 $\mu$eV (10 GHz), currently a minimally explored parameter space.

15 pages, 8 figures

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Challenges and Opportunities of Gravitational Wave Searches above 10 kHz
• Physical Signatures of Fermion-Coupled Axion Dark Matter
• Cavity, lumped-circuit, and spin-based detection of axion dark matter: differences and similarities
• Detecting dark matter using optically trapped Rydberg atom tweezer arrays